Kingdom Hearts BBS: Girl of Steel Part 3: Age of Aqua
by TheFirstTrio
Summary: Johann has been beaten, but Aqua and the gang still cannot rest as Aqua struggles to control her powers, facing new inner demons, and face her new role as the Final Harbinger. Aqua knows her life has forever changed, but can she stay the course or will she go astray? (Chapter 6 is the lemon!)
1. Chapter 1

**CHAPTER ONE: THE NIGHT BEFORE THE DAWN**

It had been two days since the final battle against Johann and the defeat of all the former Harbingers. It had been a massive battle that had cost so much: so many cities destroyed, so many people killed, and so much tragedy. All of the heroes had suffered as well. Ventus, Galuf, and Riku where all dead; all of the remaining heroes scarred from the battle. Everyone had returned home to start rebuilding their lives and the worlds that had been affected.

Everyone had suffered. But the one who had suffered the most was Aqua. As such, while everyone was able to drift into an uneasy sleep at Land of Departure's castle, the new Final Harbinger—a title she still didn't want to carry, but had not choice now—was unable to sleep. She tossed and turned; her dreams weren't peaceful, but full of nightmares and pain. She saw Johann and Ventus…she saw her little brother dying over and over again, listening to Johann's insane laughter, seeing his horrible, bone chilling smile as he killed Ventus.

A heavy sigh escaped Aqua's lips for what felt like the thousandth time tonight, who was currently dressed in a black night gown that was solid, but revealing some of her breasts. Glancing at the clock, Aqua cringed slightly when she saw it was one a.m. in the morning. This would be the second night in a row she was likely to only get three hours of sleep, none of which was really restful. She didn't have bags under her eyes yet, but she knew she couldn't keep lying about her sleeping—or lack thereof—forever to her loved ones.

Glancing to her right before rolling onto her right side, Aqua's eyes landed on the slumbering form of her lover. Terra was out like a light, snoring blissfully away. It wasn't very loud snoring; otherwise, Aqua would have killed Terra for waking up Isaac. She smiled slightly, but resisted the urge to hold onto him. She was much too restless and he deserved to have sleep.

Aqua rolled onto her left now, looking to her baby. The small child was currently in a light red, warm onesie, with a single blanket on him to keep him warm. He cooed in his sleep, making Aqua smile once again and causing her to think, _'I wonder what he is dreaming about…'_ He looked so perfect and peaceful, content and happy with his life. Aqua was happy as well, being able to fully care for him once again, including breast feeding, something that she originally feared she would have lost due to the extreme experience with the Harbingers. Thankfully, she had been lucky and she was able to continue that part of motherhood.

But soon, Aqua felt the smile run away from her face as her mind came back to her original problem. Aqua snorted slightly as she thought sourly, more correctly of her situation, _'Well, scratch that. My many problems…'_ Sitting up slowly, Aqua silently slid out of bed, to ensure that Terra and Isaac could continue to sleep peacefully. They certainly deserved that at least.

But Aqua couldn't sleep because her mind wouldn't shut off and also because her body was constantly brimming with power that screamed to be released. Her mind raced between pointless thoughts to ideas about new techniques and to the what-ifs; it jumped to her own fears and self-doubts as well.

Would she be able to control herself and her powers? Would she be a better Final Harbinger than Johann or would she fallen into the dark void that he had? Could Aqua trust Stephen Black, the Harbinger who, while now wanting to help her, had helped Johann? He had been Johann's best friend and the only thing Johann seemed to care about in the universe besides his own sick goals.

Aqua was afraid of herself. She was afraid of herself and the power she now had, as well as the overwhelming responsibility that she had. Her power could destroy the ones she loved around her and she'd live with her pain forever, being immortal.

Aqua began to shuffle out of the room, her bare feet slapping against the wooden floors slightly as she walked. Her body quivered slightly as her power pulsed through her form, through her very veins. Aqua quickly fought back this feeling, getting herself back to her more even keel.

Opening the door of the bedroom, Aqua stepped outside of the room and closed the door, thinking, _'Great…I am having problems controlling my powers. And I am so hungry!'_ Her belly rumbled as she thought this, prompting Aqua to head down the dark hallways, heading towards the kitchen to sate her belly.

'_Darlin', you have so much power now that ya gotta take in s'more food,'_ Dark Aqua replied to Aqua, trying to reason with and remind her why it was that way. It was like having fuel for a bonfire: the bigger the fire, the more fuel it needed to continue to burn at the same intensity.

Aqua didn't reply immediately to her counterpart, but Dark Aqua knew what she was thinking long before the Final Harbinger replied. Biting at her lower lip and placing a hand over her sternum as she walked, Aqua grumbled, _'But I feel like a __**pig.**__ I'm eating more than Terra does!'_

'_Oh, don't ya worry your pretty head, prissy! It'll all go to your booty and boobies.'_

Aqua turned a fiery red color due to her inner self's words, reflexively covering her chest as she sputtered back, _'Th-that's __**not**__ helping me feel b-better!'_ Her dark self certainly had a way with words; this time, Aqua didn't mean it in a positive manner. Aqua wished that she wasn't so witty with words.

'_Sowwy!'_ Dark Aqua mockingly replied in a childish manner, firmly letting Aqua know that she wasn't sorry in the slightest for what she had said. Before Aqua could chastise Dark Aqua, her belly reminded her noisily of the bluenette's original objective. Aqua blushed even more as Dark Aqua giggled in delight.

Reaching the kitchen quickly, Aqua flicked on the lights of the room. Yes, Aqua could see very well in the dark, but the light was more convenient and comforting. Aqua then made her way over to the refrigerator, grabbing a loaf of butter bread and a single, ripe tomato on the way over to the refrigerator.

Placing the bread on the counter top to the left of the refrigerator, Aqua pulled the door of the appliance open to look for toppings on a sandwich. Quickly locating some thinly sliced roasted turkey, Aqua pulled the package of meat out along with mustard, lettuce, and mayo. The Keyblade Master pulled each item out and placed them on the counter top, glass containers of condiments clattering against the granite.

After gathering her ingredients, Aqua moved to grab a plate so she could assemble her meal, along with the knife needed to cut up her lettuce and tomato; the mustard and mayo were both in squeeze bottles, thankfully. Aqua created her meal in record time, resulting in a sandwich far more fit for Terra than for herself; nearly four times the normal amount, loaded down to the gills with turkey more than anything else. Aqua looked at the sandwich with a mixture of hunger and shame, but wordlessly took the time to put up the items she had gotten out for the sandwich and place the knife in the sink. Her stomach protested vigorously as Aqua did these things.

Once Aqua had cleaned her mess, she found herself munching happily on her sandwich. As expected, it tasted very good, Aqua working overtime to savor her food rather than devour it greedily. She chewed more slowly in order to accomplish the task of savoring.

But soon, she found her sandwich half gone, much to her dismay and disappointment. Even going slowly, Aqua felt like she was stuffing herself. But she knew that this was the norm from here on out. It was reality and Aqua couldn't deny that reality, no matter how much she closed her eyes and wished.

"Well, someone's hungry."

Caught off-guard, Aqua nearly came out of her skin at the sound of that familiar voice. She jumped, nearly losing her sandwich, which she fumbled briefly with to keep in her grasp. Her steel grip kept her food without shattering her plate. The Final Harbinger spent a moment slowing down her heart and gathering herself, not fully sure if she was ready to face the owner of the voice.

Turning, Aqua found herself facing the only original Harbinger left, Stephen Black. The man was wearing a plain grey t-shirt and light blue pajama pants, a charming smile on his face that threatened to almost make Aqua relax and disarm her tense stance.

Almost.

"You surprised me," Aqua said in a very neutral tone as she looked at the still powerful Harbinger. While she was leagues above him in power, she dared not to take him lightly, especially after Terra had told her about his fight with Stephen. Even with the little she knew from Terra, she knew a formidable warrior when she saw one.

Stephen, for his part, didn't miss the vibe coming from Aqua. It was painfully obvious to him. A frown replaced the smile he had been wearing, but only for a moment before he smiled once again. Speaking, Stephen flatly said to Aqua, "You know, if I make you so uncomfortable, you _can_ make me leave. Dismiss me and I can be out of your life forever."

This was something that Aqua knew to be true. She _could_ very easily remove the source of unease by dismissing Stephen. Yes, Terra had taken a liking to the man, but he was a lingering reminder of the terror that Johann had been to her, her family, and her friends. What reason did she have to allow Stephen to stay around?

But Aqua knew the answer to that, even as she placed her sandwich on the countertop. It was the very same reason why she had given people _so_ many chances, no matter how much they had hurt her or failed, no matter how evil they could be. Aqua's expression softened into a mixture of sadness and amusement as she sighed; sadness at the topic and amusement at her own answer.

"You're right, Stephen," Aqua finally said to the smaller man, making the Light Harbinger blink a few times as he listened to his new leader. "I could make you leave. I could save myself a lot of pain, maybe, by doing so…" Aqua laughed a bit, finding her own reasoning to be laughable. "But…"

Aqua trailed off, trying to find reasoning on her own madness, unaware her left eye was starting to glow more brightly, while her scarlea turned black. Stephen spotted this, but said nothing yet, electing to continue the conversation by asking, "But what?" He wanted to know what made Aqua tick, to better understand her.

"That's taking the easy way out."

It was a shocking answer, one that made Stephen's eyes go wide as he quickly processed the full depth of that short answer. Quickly gaining that deeper understanding of what Aqua had said, Stephen knew he really only needed to look at her past and her personality type to gain his answer versus mulling it over. Recovering from his shock, Stephen responded with, "I see. You have a near suicidal desire to see the best in people and give them chance after chance. Is that why you don't let me leave? And surely, is it the same reason why you gave Terra so many chances, even after he hurt you so much?"

Flinching at the all-too-accurate observation, Aqua looked away as she replied, "I forgot how observant you are. I _love_ Terra. That's why I kept forgiving him, even when he called me terrible things, helped kill our Master…I didn't want to give up on him or anyone. People gave up on me when I was a child. I couldn't…I_ wouldn't_ do that to others." Despite staring to feel more and more uncomfortable with the direction of this conversation, Aqua didn't stop it, either. She was the one who had opened this can of worms, after all.

Chuckling, Stephen said, "Well, one learns to become observant after becoming a Harbinger." He had learned this lesson painfully after he had been recruited by Johann as a Harbinger. Stephen could recall that day in detail; it was a dark day. But quickly moving from his past Stephen then commented, "But I am impressed by your ability to forgive." Aqua smiled a bit at this, but she quickly beat back any joy. She didn't want to warm up to Stephen. She couldn't trust him yet.

"Why do you want to stay, Stephen? Aside from still serving, you don't have any real reason to stay," Aqua inquired of the Light Harbinger, wondering what her subordinate was thinking.

Suddenly, Aqua froze. Stephen didn't miss the sudden changing in Aqua's expression, with mounting horror crawling itself onto Aqua's face. Saving his answer to Aqua's question, Stephen instead asked, "What's wrong, Aqua?"

'_My…subordinate? No, no, no, no, no! He's not! What am I thinking?'_ Aqua thought as she let out a shaky breath, trying to calm herself down. She couldn't possibly be thinking like this! Even if she trusted Stephen, she'd never call him a 'subordinate.' In order to avoid to prevent Stephen from prying, Aqua basically ordered, "Answer the question."

Stephen knew that she wasn't going to tell him, so he did as she asked. Why make her even more upset than she was already going to get? He needed to tread lightly, after all. So, with a shake of his head, Stephen replied, "Because you need all the help you can get." Ignoring the darkening expression of anger on Aqua's face, he said, "I suppose this is my way of redeeming myself." There was a pause before he stated to Aqua, "And don't say you don't need help."

Recoiling, the anger that had been building—a common thing lately, Aqua drily noted—vanished as a confused and surprised expression appeared on Aqua's face. Not understanding what Stephen meant as he looked at her expectantly, Aqua asked, "What?"

"You're having trouble right now managing your powers and your Stage II transformation," Stephen replied as he gestured at Aqua, who opened her mouth to reply. Stephen cut her off, however, concluding, "You only need to look in a mirror for my point to be proven."

Further confusing by Stephen's answer, Aqua, forgetting about her food for now, was quick to head to nearest bathroom and quickly at that. Heading out of the kitchen and down the hallway she had traversed to reach the kitchen, Aqua's destination was the guest bedroom. Stephen didn't follow her, glancing at her sandwich for a moment. A sigh escaped his lips as he thought, _'She's going to need all the help she can get. She can't do this alone.'_

Meanwhile, Aqua had arrived at the guest bedroom. Opening the door and going inside before hanging a left and bee lining for the restroom. The whole time, Aqua was thinking, _'I know I am having problems with my powers, but does it show that bad?'_ As Aqua walked into the bathroom and by the time she had flicked on the bathroom light, she had already seen the source of her problem. It caused her heart to skip a few beats and Aqua to come to an immediate halt.

After all, a brightly glowing eye was extremely difficult to miss in the darkness with a nearby wall mirror.

"My eye…" Aqua said softly as she slowly reached up to her left eye, the glowing orb standing out against the black background. No wonder Stephen had noticed so easily. Aqua realized it must have changed during their conversation; Stephen must have noticed instantly, but he was likely waiting to see if she had even _felt _the change in her body.

Aqua was quick to change her eye back to normal, the black fading and the glowing disappearing. After making sure she didn't look off, Aqua left the bathroom, turning off the light as she left. Soon, she was back the hallway leading to the kitchen, looking down the hallway itself. She knew Stephen was waiting for her return, but Aqua found herself unwilling to return.

'_He knows so much 'bout us darlin','_ Dark Aqua interjected softly, catching Aqua off-guard and making her jump some. Her dark side had been completely silent up until now. Dark Aqua wasn't fazed as she boldly said, _'Maybe he and Terra-Bear can help us together!'_

'_I don't care if he knows a lot about us because he is good at guessing,'_ Aqua stubbornly replied to her darker self. She didn't want to let Stephen into the recesses of her personal life. _'I don't want his help.'_

Dark Aqua, slightly exasperated, began to protest, _'But darlin'…'_ She was trying to reason with Aqua, trying to get Aqua to see the reason. However, Aqua remained stubborn, replying angrily, _'No! I don't care! He was Johann's best friend! He…he doesn't deserve a chance to help me. I can do this on my own.'_

This finally set Dark Aqua off.

'_**NO! YOU CAN'T!"**_ Dark Aqua screamed out in absolute anger, explosively unloading onto Aqua. Grabbing at the sides of her head in pain, Aqua groaned in agony, "Nnnnngghhh!"

'_**You're not thinkin' straight, goddamn it! Cuz you're so powerful 'n shit, always havin' to deal with everythin' alone for so long that you've gotten to independent!'**_ Dark Aqua ranted, making Aqua cringe at her blatant accusations. Each word sliced right into Aqua's heart, feeling the anger and truth behind those words. Continuing her rant, Dark Aqua's voice softened as hiccups broke her words up, _'I lo-love you t-too much t' see ya just close up. You 'aven't even asked Terra-Bear fer help and he's been wantin' to see you happy again. Why are you actin' so…cold?'_

Another searing jab to Aqua's heart, this one making Aqua visibly stiffen as her eyes went wide. Then, Aqua closed her eyes, trying to avoid the tears that wanted to fall and a hand went over her chest. Aqua whimpered pitifully, "I'm sorry. I'm just…I'm so scared. What if I fall Terra and hurt him? What if I open my heart to Stephen and he hurts me?"

Before Dark Aqua could answer her, Aqua heard footsteps, prompting her to open her eyes and look in the direction of the footsteps. It didn't surprise her to see Stephen standing before her, holding her plate of food in his right hand. Looking at her food before she looked into Stephen eyes, Aqua furiously blinked away stray tears as she managed to choke out softly, "Hey…"

Stephen didn't run her down for nearly crying and looking absolutely weak right now like Aqua was afraid off. Instead, he smiled softly and said, "Those are legit fears, Aqua. Fear is a powerful thing and it can affect even the bravest and mightiest of people." It was clear he had overheard Aqua 'talking' to herself, until he said with a knowing smile, "Tell Dark Aqua I said hello, however."

'_Buh! He knows? G'damn, this guy is good!'_ Dark Aqua muttered in a mixture of embarrassment and pride, enjoying being acknowledged by another being. After all, Dark Aqua wasn't shy in admitting she wanted everyone to know she existed!

Stephen then said, "But I am not asking you to be my friend or let me be your friend. If that never happened, I would understand completely." He paused as he neared Aqua, getting a bit closer as he offered, "I am asking you allow us to help. Your husband, yourself, your friends." He wanted to help this new, inexperienced Final Harbinger never become like his friend had. He had failed his friend; by that extension, he had failed the universe. He couldn't allow Aqua to become like Johann had been in those last twenty years.

Aqua saw the desire in Stephen's eyes. Without a doubt, Aqua knew Terra wanted to help even more than Stephen, but wasn't sure how to go about it. She knew her friends wanted to ease her burdens, even if she fought back and continued to try and shoulder it all by herself. But she knew it wasn't going to be easy to change or to help her.

But she wanted them to try so badly.

Rather suddenly, Aqua asked in a timid manner, "Did…Johann have problems controlling his powers?" She wanted to know if she was inferior to her predecessor. It scared her to death to think she was weaker mentally than Johann.

Stephen answered honestly; the answer caused Aqua's shoulders to slump in disappoint as her face matched the feeling of crushed hoped she had. "Not until the end. For a long time, he was the poster child of controlling one's power. For a long time, he was—well, that's for another day, if you want to hear it. You have more important things to do, starting off with finishing your food!" Offering Aqua's sandwich back to her, he then reassured, "But don't compare yourself to Johann. It's just silly to de-valuing yourself that way, by comparing apples to oranges. You're not weaker than Johann and he honestly wouldn't have picked you."

There was silence as Aqua merely nodded to the Light Harbinger. There wasn't much else for her or Stephen to say to one another. Taking her sandwich, Aqua began to munch on it in silence, enjoying the flavor. She didn't look at anything in particular as she ate, but tomorrow, she knew what to do. She had to start taking her role as the Final Harbinger seriously and figure out what she had to do.

But first, as she finished her meal, Aqua had one last thing to say to Stephen. He watched as she opened her mouth for a moment before gritting her teeth a bit, like she was struggling with herself. Finally, Aqua spoke, surprising him once again.

"…I…I'd like you to help me."

Stephen smiled at this and replied, "Of course. I'll do what I can and so will everyone else. Remember, you're never alone, Aqua. People are here for you. And you know, the strongest people are not those that win in front of us, but those who win battles we know nothing about." Aqua smiled brightly at this, unable to stop herself. Stephen, seeing his words were working, then said, "This will make you so much stronger in the end. The path will be hard…but you're more than ready."

For Aqua, that was a good way to conclude the conversation. She nodded and said, "Thank you. I'm sorry for treating you so badly. I'll do my best to be better to you and stop acting so harsh to you." She moved over and gently hugged the man, who was clearly taken off-guard by it before Stephen smile softly and retuned the hug. Moving away from Stephen, Aqua then said, "Goodnight, Stephen."

Nodding back, Stephen replied, "Goodnight, Aqua." Taking Aqua's plate from her, Stephen bowed before heading back to the kitchen. Aqua watched him as he disappeared into the room before she turned and started heading back to her and Terra's room.

She knew it was time to feed her baby, but she was ready, of course. Aqua knew today was likely the start of something new and foreign, something she hadn't clue how it would end.

But Aqua was ready. She was ready to keep being the girl of steel.


	2. Chapter 2: UPDATE

UPDATE

Good day everyone! I have an update, but not a good one. I was involved in a serious car accident, which is why I have not posted in a very long time. I was hurt, but, thankfully, not life threatening. The vehicle was totaled and my life has been busy since then…

In addition, I lost all of my chapter work.

However, I have resumed work, albeit slowly. So an update will come, eventually!

Thank you for being so patient. I'm blessed with such loyal readers.


	3. Chapter 2: Depature

**CHAPTER TWO: DEPARTURE**

The sun had made its presence known as it rose lazily over Land of Departure. Rays of light pierced the gloom of light, washing over the castle the land around it. The warmth of the new morning spurred birds and other animals to awaken, the air soon being filled the various chorus of bird songs. The sun also jarred the remaining slumbering members of the castle at Land of Departure awake. Gone had another night of restlessness and nightmares; instead, another day of uncertainly and wondering of what was next.

Terra groaned as he opened his eyes, turning away from the blinding sun light. How was it the window was _always_ open just enough to blind him in the morning? It was certainly adding to his already immense levels of tension and frustration. He sighed as he rolled away from the light and then began to sit up.

Surveying his and Aqua's room, Terra found the bed a mess of tossed covers and Aqua's pillows on the floor. In addition, Aqua, along with Isaac, were both gone. A frown now found its way onto Terra's features as he groaned once again, this time pour of annoyance. This sight that greeted him this morning was _not_ a new one.

'_Gone __**again.**__ This is the eighth night in a row that Aqua's been having trouble sleeping, left sometime during the night, and been gone when I have woke up in the morning,'_ Terra thought as he ran his left hand through his messy hair, trying to relax a bit without screaming. Terra knew Aqua had problems now—many issues and no doubt mental damage—but he hadn't confronted it yet because he wanted to see if the patterns he had been witnessing were just temporary.

But now he knew was being delusional. After what Aqua had been through, _nothing_ was going to be the same again. All of them had suffered so much, but Aqua had taken the brunt of it.

He knew he had to say something to his wife before something happen, before all of Aqua's stress, pain, and misery spiraled out of control. She was just destroying herself by keep all the pain inside. He had noticed Aqua's power was no longer under her complete control, spiking erratically even when Aqua rested or slept. Then there was the new powers she had displayed during the battle with Johann; another white elephant in the room.

But that wasn't the only thing he had noticed.

'_There's also the signs…the whimpering while sleeping, the cries of Johann and Ven's name; the shivering, lying 'bout how she is feeling,'_ Terra thought as he finally got out of bed, tossing the covers away and placing his feet onto the floor.

So, Terra knew he needed to talk to his wife and control her directly about all of her pain and locked away rage. They needed to address her growing problems before they overwhelmed her; after all, even Aqua was unbreakable. He knew he couldn't hold her on the pedestal like he had before. He had to be realistic.

Aqua was just human, not a Goddess. All humans had breaking points.

Terra now found himself clenching his hands into tight fists. If they had all been stronger, maybe that_ bastard_ Johann would have never been able to do all of this to Aqua, to everyone. His sick game and tests had rocked everyone to their core and left nothing but misery for the survivors. Only by sheer luck had Queen Minnie survived.

Calming himself, Terra realized he needed to get cleaned up if he wanted to do any helping today. A shower sounded like a sure-fire ticket to calming himself, even if it wouldn't wash away the bad memories. As Terra headed to the bathroom, Aqua's vestige popped into his mind.

A grief stricken face, the face that came to Aqua's features when she fully accepted what had happened.

That face spurned Terra onward to ensure he helped his wife, no matter how much she resisted or how hard it was.

'_I'll help you…'_

* * *

><p>Fresh and cleaned up, Terra marched down the hallway to the kitchen, dressed in a different attire today. Although it had been joked that Terra only ever wore his combat uniform, Terra actually have a wardrobe, thanks to Aqua's insistence when they were still students. So, today he was wearing a pair of straight legged jeans, a pair of blue sneakers, and a long sleeved, checkered collared shirt. The checkers were black and white in color and the shirt sported a left breast pocket. On Terra's neck was his Wayfinder, the orange glass twinkling as it caught rays of sunlight.<p>

'_Now, I can sense Aqua's in the kitchen…Isaac is with her. Maybe Xion or Stephen can watch Isaac while I talk with Aqua,'_ Terra thought as he hastily moved down the corridor, so engrossed in his thoughts he failed to pay attention to his surroundings.

It would prove to be a mistake.

At this time, Terra walked into another person, the sound of flesh meeting flesh roughly. Terra and the person he had run into both let out cries of pain, before the back of Terra's head smacked the extremely tough floors—it was like two steel walls running into one another!—with Terra clutching his head as he let out a string of curses. That had smarted and Terra could feel a lump forming where his skull had hit the floor. Two other voices could be hear, both of which Terra knew.

Terra finally sat up, world still seeing saws as his eyes settled on the forms of Stephen and Xion. Stephen was wearing a plain grey t-shirt and a part of tan colored cargo shorts that ended just past his knees, while Xion was once again in her Organization XIII coat. She seemed to like the coat, despite hating the Organizatin so much.

"Ow, holy hell, son of a bitch! That hurt! Shit, shit, shit, shit!" Stephen cursed as he held his head, also smacking his head again the solid ground. Xion was standing near Stephen, eyes wide with surprised, a small smile on her face as she snorted, trying to contain her laughter. It was comical seeing two powerful warriors on the floor like this.

Looking at Terra, Stephen growled angrily at him, "Watch where you're going, you ass! You might have been in a hurry, but, damn, you can _look_ where you're going!" Terra was too shocked to give much of a retort as Stephen hoped to his feet in one swift motion, letting a sigh as he scratched the sore part of his head. Moving to Terra, Stephen offered a hand to help him up, going, "Ah, whatever. Crap happens, so there's no reason to hold grudges here."

Terra, finally getting over his surprise, gripped Stephen's hand, speaking sheepishly as the smaller man pulled him up, going, "Well, I was heading to the kitchen to talk to Aqua. I know she's there…" He trailed off, not sure how to continue. However, Xion continued for him.

"Oh, you must smell Master Aqua's cooking. It makes sense; you always follow your stomach," Xion said, trying to make a joke at Terra's expense. It felt like the right thing to do at the time.

Terra recoiled in surprise from the joke, as well as its origin, with Stephen snickered at Terra's expense, commenting, "Wow, she's got a better sense of humor than you do, Commander Stone." With that, there was another rock-head comment to add to the list, Stephen, Terra, and Xion noted.

"Oh, ha, ha. Funny, you're both so funny," Terra finally retorted drily as he crossed his arms and gave Stephen and Xion dirty looks. Quickly moving onto the manner that was originally bringing him to the kitchen (although he _did _smell really good food!) to begin with, Terra explained, "No, I want to talk to Aqua in private. I was wondering if either of you could watch Isaac?"

Xion was perked a bit, wondering what Terra wanted to talk to Aqua about. It had to be fairly important, especially if he didn't want Isaac around to hear a potential argument between parents. Stephen, on the other hand, was _very _well aware of what Terra wanted to do. He elected to not say anything on the fact he'd already talked to Aqua—although the conversation had mostly started because of her—so Terra could pursue his agenda.

Speaking, Stephen nodded as he said, "Sure, why not? I imagine we both could use some time carrying for a child!" Xion blinked a bit and then said, "I wouldn't mind at all! Isaac is very cute, after all. I can't his so adorable."

With that taken care of, Terra replied, "Thank you. Now, let's go eat first!" At this point, Terra walked past Stephen and Xion, heading towards the kitchen once again. Stephen groaned and said, "Sweet Kingdom Hearts, prove a point why don't you? He really does think with his stomach sometimes."

Xion smiled at this, trusting this man somewhat even though he was once an enemy, responding, "But that is one thing that makes Terra himself. It's just another thing that makes us all different you special…"

Stephen could only smile and nod at those strong words before he and Xion followed Terra, heading to the kitchen.

Once everyone had reached the kitchen, they had certainly expected to see a grand breakfast as usual, but today was _completely_ different. It was so shocking that the new arrivals where merely standing in as still as statues as they stared at the sight before them.

It bordered between insane and hilarious.

Hell, the smell before the kitchen was nearly overwhelming, but being inside made the aromas that assaulted their noses overpowering in nature.

The kitchen was mostly covered in food—several cakes, ranging from chocolate to marble to coconut, from sheet cakes to three tiers cakes and ones shaped like keyblades. There were brownies of different flavors and types. There were pancakes, waffles, sausage links and patties, and scrambled eggs.

And someone had already eaten a large amount of the breakfast items—the culprit being none other than Aqua herself. That wasn't what was making everyone stare so blankly in Aqua's direction, nor was the mountain of food, which was pretty shocking

It was what Aqua was doing with Isaac.

The little boy was in a light blue onesie, his blue eyes sparkling and wide, huge smile on his face due to his mother. His hair was starting to grow in, appearing to be black in coloration. He was currently sitting in a highchair, gabbling at Aqua, "Ma, ma, ma, ma, da, da, da!" Aqua was currently doing a handstand with her right hand, while balancing an apple on her left foot. She was wearing most of her 'combat' attire, minus the boots, which allowed her to balance the apple on her foot. She was also talking cutely to Isaac.

"Oh, I bet you think mommy is so funny doing this, huh?" Aqua cooed with glee as she made Isaac laugh once again, a high pitch giggle that made Aqua smile so brightly she was forgetting the rest of the world and her troubles. "I love you so much Isaac. You're my world…you and Terra are my lights!" She then flipped, landing in front of Isaac and catching the apple as it fell down towards the ground with her left hand. Isaac squealed in delight, making Aqua giggle as well.

At this point, Stephen leaned over to Terra and muttered to him in amusement, "So, are you going to go ahead and get her attention? She seems pretty happy right now." It wasn't a warning; it was merely curiosity on Stephen's end on what Terra would do next.

Terra glared for a moment at Stephen before he cleared his throat a bit, prompting Aqua to jump slightly before she looked over in the direction of the offending sound. Upon seeing Terra, Xion, and Stephen, she smiled once again, she said excitedly in one long breath, "Oh, you're all here! I made breakfast as you can see, but I was really energetic, so I started making cakes, but I kinda made a lot, I should have stopped, but was having too much fun!" She flapped her arms as she gestured wildly as well to the various cakes while she spoke.

Everyone blinked a bit at this, while Terra coughed a bit and said, "Huh…that's very nice of you Aqua?" Since when did she become so hyperactive and Ven-like? Maybe this was another developing quirk with Aqua, due to the sheer level of power? Terra wasn't certain, but at least it was cute and comical versus dangerous and explosive.

By now, Aqua seemed to get herself under control, letting out a content sigh. Crossing her arms over her chest, The Final Harbinger announced, "Anyways, I'm glad you're all here. I want to talk to all of you."

Terra, however, tried to interject by going, "Actually, Aqua, can I talk to you in private?" He wanted to try and get Aqua alone, even if she seemed to have other plans. Stephen and Xion watched Aqua recoil ever so slightly at this, eyes going wide before she shook her head a bit and responded, "Can I make my announcement first? Then I promise I will talk to you, Terra."

Terra frowned some, not really wanting to consent, but relenting eventually. He wasn't going to let Aqua wriggle away from this, although he strongly doubt this was her intent. Stephen noticed the look on Terra's face, knowing instantly that he was going to pursue talking to Aqua; a good call on Terra's part, Stephen noted. _'Now then, let's see what the Final Harbinger has to say,'_ Stephen thought as he turned his full attention to Aqua.

Looking to each person, Aqua began to speak, going, "We already know I am the Final Harbinger, thanks to…Johann, but the rest of the Harbingers are dead, aside from Stephen." She paused to let this sink in, not sure how to present what she was about to ask to her friends. "One of my duties is to pick new Harbingers. Right now, I need two—a Darkness Harbinger and a Nothingness Harbinger."

Xion tensed at this conversation. Why was there master embracing this role as the Final Harbinger? Xion had expected Aqua to try and rid herself of the title, versus already falling right into the duties of her new position! Tentative, Xion asked, "Do…you want us to help you find Harbingers?" Asking such a question left a bad taste in Xion's mouth.

Looking at Xion, Aqua then shook her head, replying to her raven haired friend, "No, I have to find them. But I feel like I have already found them. Which is why I want to ask…" Aqua trailed off for a moment, but by now, Terra and Stephen had put two and two together. A look of complete surprise had formed on Terra's face, while Stephen was impassive, not sure how to feel yet.

"I want you, Terra to be my Darkness Harbinger; Xion, I want you to be my Nothing Harbinger," Aqua finally said, confirming what Terra and Stephen had already correctly guessed.

Terra thought numbly, _'What the fuck? She's just asking these like it's not a big deal?'_ He felt a hurricane of feeling rushing through him: pride at being asked, anger for being asked, implication of his darkness based powers, shock at how Aqua was acting. He couldn't even form a proper reply.

However, Xion did form a reply. Her face became twisted with rage, horrified that her Master was simply going to ask them to take the roles of the very beings that had ruined lives, worlds, nations, and taken Ventus from her and everyone else. She felt her hands ball up into fists and she growled, "Absolutely not. I will never become one of those…those _bastards!"_

Aqua recoiled at this, visibly hurt by the words. She had expected rejection, but not this level of fury from Xion. Stephen looked at Xion as she shook with anger, while Terra said in surprise, "Xion…!"

Aqua reached out to Xion as she moved closer, going, "I'm sorry you're angry, Xion. I understand…" She tried her best to remain calm and collected, but this served to make Xion even more upset, slapping Aqua's hand away angrily with a crack. Aqua backed off, surprised at the lashing out, as was everyone else. A look of sadness and hurt crossed on Aqua's face, but Xion pressed in, going, "_Do_ you understand!? I don't think you do! You're just going _**let**_ Johann get his way and do his job? After what he _did_ to Ven!?

"Xion…I don't have a choice," Aqua replied as she looked away, not sure how to handle this situation. Stephen was quick to move closer to Aqua, as did Terra, to defend her if Xion snapped. Aqua certainly wasn't going to strike her friend. Terra opened his mouth to reply to Xion, but Aqua simply reached over to him, leaning on him and tugging at his shirt. It was a silent message to stay quiet and let Xion rage.

Aqua's reply set Xion off with a scream, going, _"You always have a choice!"_ Panting heavily from screaming, with tears starting to fall with her anger, Xion said, "You told us we always had a choice. We could always change fate if we wanted to! But you…you're a damn hypocrite if you do what you're doing right now!" Pointing her right index finger at Aqua shakily as the bluenette looked away in shame, Xion growled, "I'm not gonna take part in this. I love Ventus. I will _not_ disgrace him like you will, Aqua, by being a monster."

And with that, Xion turned away from Aqua and began to walk away, shaking as she went. Stephen finally asked the girl, "Where are you going?" Xion didn't reply right away as reached the door the exited the kitchen. Pausing, Xion finally said, "I'm leaving."

Aqua perked some and inquired, "Leaving?" Aqua was quick to dissect the edge in Xion's voice, the final declaration of the girl. Aqua felt tears stinging her eyes. She knew what Xion meant. "You're leaving…you're leaving for good," Aqua said, a statement more than a real question.

"Yes. I'm not going to stay here if you're going to become another Johann," Xion replied, burying a metaphorical knife into Aqua's chest. Aqua sobbed finally, holding onto Terra as she snarled in anger. Stephen, however, replied angrily, "Then get the hell out. Some friend you are if you can't understand why Aqua is doing what she is doing." He had heard enough from Xion and wasn't going to let her keep insulting Aqua.

Xion, looking back one last time, tears staining her face, walked out of the kitchen, slamming the door with a crash.

And when she was gone, Aqua let out a wail as she buried her face into Terra's chest. She had never wanted this to end this way. She just wanted to have her friend's help when she was the Final Harbinger and not do this alone. Terra held her close as she cried, sparks of magic coming off of Aqua as her power spiked once again. Terra was angry as he held her close; Xion had hurt Aqua greatly before she had left.

But fate was cruel.

There had been four warriors in the castle at Land of Departure. One had been swallowed by anger, disappearing under the cloud of rage.

There had been four.

But now there were three.

**Well, that's chapter two! A lot of questions will be answered in coming chapters and many loose ends tied up about Aqua's powers and other matters. **

**Sadly, Xion has left the scene for good, a curtain call for the Nobody that loved Ventus. **


	4. Chapter 3: Stahl Regen

CHAPTER THREE: STAHL REGEN

_There she was. It was three weeks before Terra and Aqua met Ventus; right now, it was just her and Terra. Right now, they were at the usual training spot, with Aqua practicing her graceful Keyblade strikes. Terra was watching her silently, sitting on one of the golden stone benches that dotted the training grounds. _

_She was so focused, so smooth. Her fighting method was the opposite of Terra's, which was harsh and brutal. _

_She was beautiful. He was the beast._

'_I know I should be training, even in our off time, but…watching her is so entrancing. It's so…so…beautiful,' Terra thought as Aqua performed a series of Sliding Dashes, something Terra also did, but she seemed to do it more smoothly than he._

_But apparently, she was fully aware he was watching her. She paused after her Sliding Dash combination, glancing at him while arching her right eyebrow. She then smiled and called out, "Are you just going to keep staring or will you come practice with me?"_

_Terra jumped, her voice calling him out of his thoughts, before he smirked at her confidently. Getting to his feet and brushing himself off, Terra summoned his Keyblade, coolly replying, "Alright, since you need me so, I'll come over and play ball."_

_Aqua remained outwardly calm, but on the inside, she flushed and thought, 'Trying to push my buttons? No, I won't let you ruffle my feathers…' Aqua smiled back and replied, "I need a good punch—I mean, partner."_

_Terra merely laughed at her._

* * *

><p>"What is it to be powerful?"<p>

Terra jumped at the question, having been lost in thought, nearly coming out of his love seat. He was reliving a memory, in an attempt to forget that Xion had left them roughly an hour ago. It had been rough seeing someone he had nearly died to protect leaving them, but stopping her would have been a worse idea. Aqua, having been in no condition to talk, had been curled on the couch in the living room, eyes half open, red and puffy from crying once again. Terra had fed Isaac a bottle before placing him down for bed, going to join his depressed wife. Stephen had gone off to train outside, likely to vent his own mounting frustrations.

But now, Aqua was sitting up, tears gone, looking at Terra expectantly. She seemed alright or at least composed enough to talk.

"What?" Terra asked, having heard what Aqua had asked him, but not really registering the question. Why was she asking him that? It didn't make much sense to him why she was asking such a random question.

Aqua sighed a bit, rubbing her temple slightly. She paused for a moment once again, her right eye twitching, a spike in her power matching her eye twitching. It felt like her entire body was going to explode at any second, but she beat back the power aching to be released. Once her power calmed down, Aqua let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding in. Once again, she asked, "What is it to be powerful, Terra?"

Terra mused that over for a moment. What did it mean to be really powerful? He knew that raw power or raw strength wasn't the answer to such a question. Being powerful had a deeper meaning than just being mighty and a skilled warrior. But Terra had never really grasped the meaning during the time in which Xehanort had so easily manipulated him.

But now, he felt like he really knew the answer to the question being proposed to him. He finally looked back at Aqua, replying, "Well, I think being strong means that you lift the people up around you. That you don't hold your strength over others, but use it to bring them greater levels of achievement. I didn't do that at first, thinking only power was being powerful…"

Aqua smiled slightly at this. That was a good answer, one she completely agreed with. But she wanted to add to it, making her then said, "I'd add on that it also means knowing when to use your power, no matter how great, and when not to use it. When to back away. When to let sleeping dogs lie."

She paused a bit at this, looking down at her hands, palms facing up some. But she wasn't able to live by that creed. She couldn't even manage her powers and her mind sometimes produced irrational, terrifying thoughts. She sometimes, especially during her fight with Johann, felt like she was drunk on her power and could do anything she wanted. "But me, I can't control my powers very well anymore. So much strength, but I'm so afraid of myself, Terra."

Terra knew this conversation was coming; it was the one he wanted to have with her. He had so many questions about her new powers, their roles now. He wanted to know where things were going. He tried to reassure Aqua. "It's ok to be afraid, you know. We're all here to help you, to try and make this easier, somehow. I know we're not the Final Harbinger like you, but…we're still your friends. I am still your husband. You can count on me."

Aqua smiled weakly, almost replying in an insulting manner that she couldn't count on someone who was so easily tricked. But she held her tongue, although she really didn't want to. What was wrong with her? She had never thought so lowly of her loved ones before. So, she managed to reply, "I know, Terra." Her voice waivered and nearly cracked under the guilt she was feeling, something Terra did notice right away.

Quickly moving onto a different subject before Terra could get too suspicious with her answer and the tone of her voice, Aqua then inquired, "What do you want to ask me? I might as well lay it out on the table. No more secrets…no lies." She wanted to allow some of this crushing weight off of her chest. She wanted to start feeling better about herself. Dark Aqua mused to her mother figure, _'Cuttin' right to the chase, hm, darlin'? Ya know he's just been dyin' to see ya open this con o' worms…'_ Aqua didn't reply to Dark Aqua for the moment.

This grabbed Terra's attention completely, as expected. The brunette frowned slightly at how off Aqua was acting all of the sudden. But he brushed it off as his imagination being over active. Pushing away any other thoughts, Terra then asked his wife the biggest question of all.

"What happened? Johann kidnapped you, but…how did you get all this power? Regeneration, increased strength both physically and magically…what did he do?"

Aqua nearly balked at the first question, even if she had been fully expected this one. It was painful to try and tell the entire story—being tortured so mercilessly, being nearly raped, being forced to murder people. Aqua didn't want to tell him everything, but she had already made a promise. She couldn't run away now. Aqua steadied herself to answer the questions she had been asked.

"Well…after he kidnapped me, Johann started to prepare me for being his replacement. I didn't know it, of course…it hurt. It hurt so much. Terra," Aqua said softly as she looked down at the floor in shame. Her dirty laundry was being very much exposed right now, and even if Terra was to be completely trusted, she still felt completely ashamed of showing her weakness. But she continued none the less. "He tortured me. He 'tested' the regeneration powers he gave me by tearing off ears, limbs, and anything else. He gave me vast amounts of knowledge so quickly my brain felt like it was on fire. And he boosted my powers, baring unlocking Stage II, which I don't think he could have done. He knew how, I guess…"

Terra was horrified at what he was hearing, but he could tell this was merely the tip of the iceberg. His eyes widened at the progressive levels of torture that Aqua began to describe, mouth dropping slightly as well. He should have guessed this was what had happened, but to hear it first hand, so vividly…it provoke entirely different feelings now. Not just anger, but so many mixed feelings, all competing for first place, and none winning it.

"He made me pick between saving my friends or innocent people, you know? I could either save you or save Twilight Town, but I picked all of you. And when I did, he destroyed that world completely. I'm responsible for what happen there because I was…I wanted to save you and my baby more," Aqua admitted, feeling both relieved and selfish at the same time. She couldn't hold onto her morals as well as she wanted and she broken under such threats from Johann. She knew it was because she was helpless and he had all the cards at the time. She sighed heavily, taking a pause to calm her nerves. She didn't need to collect her memories as they were always in her nightmares.

"I was almost raped but Noveus, she did violate me, but Johann stopped the rape. I didn't understand him. I didn't understand why he stopped her, but maybe that someone like him wasn't as twisted as I expected…then Stephen confused me more. Why was such a decent person employed by Johann? Why didn't he save me or help more?"

Terra opened his mouth to speak, but closed it upon realizing he didn't have anything reassuring to say or anything to ask just yet. Everything he had heard had affectively silenced him. He was shaking slightly with barely contained fury at the entire situation. But he tried to keep his cool, for Aqua's sake. So, he merely moved over to Aqua and sat next to her, pulling her closer so she could lean on him. She complied and leaned on him, letting out another sigh as she closed her eyes for a moment. She held back any tears as her body convulsed slightly, holding back a sob. She needed to complete her story, so she couldn't afford to cry.

The last part was the part she feared the most. It was why she took the position of Final Harbinger.

"In the end, Terra…I took Johann's job not because it's so important, so critical, but because if I didn't, he'd kill all of you. He was immortal. He would have survived the explosion of the Graveyard and then—" Aqua began before Terra suddenly moved, looking down at her form and asking in a low tone, "Immortal? Aqua, if he was immortal, then why is he gone? What happened?"

Terra was starting to figure it out. He was heading down the right track to a date with destiny once again. But this was one he wasn't going to like. He was already being put on edge by tales of torture, near rape, and Johann's cruelty, but this was the deal breaker.

Aqua was very quiet. Her eyes were wide as saucers at Terra suddenly pressing her to spill the beans, unsure how to tell her husband she was immortal. That she was going to live forever, so long as she was a Harbinger. She sputtered a bit, looking away and trying to speak. But the words refused to form, a raspy whine coming from her suddenly parched throat.

"Aqua."

Terra's voice sounds like steel, like a razor sharp blade ready to plunge into Aqua's pounding heart. She looked back at him, seeing the clouds of fear and anger in his cobalt eyes. That makes it even harder to tell him. So, Aqua did something completely out of character, something that was completely insane. She reached up with her right hand, formed a fist, pouring a vast amount of power into her tightly clenched fist…

…and punched herself right in the face with a sickening crack, breaking her nose so violently that she was flung off the couch, a completely horrified Terra scream out, getting off the couch as she hit the floor roughly. He was speckled with her blood, which only served to add to his horror. Crimson blood—the fluid reminding Aqua she was alive, she could still feel—flowed freely from her shattered nose, cartilage and bone cutting into her brain matter. To Terra, the sight of her face, now unrecognizable, suggested she had punched herself to death.

What would have been fatal wasn't so for Aqua. Soon, her face was healing, rebuilding itself as Terra froze in mid-reach for her, shocked into motionlessness at what he was witnessing. The blood even vanished, going back into Aqua's body as her face rebuilt. Terra hadn't a clue what had just happened, even as Aqua sat up slowly and looked at him. Her face was emotionless, her features neutral as Terra began to process what had just happened.

Finally, Terra could put two and two together. The silence from Aqua, then this sudden display of gory violence from the bluenette, followed by the regeneration from a clearly fatal wound, had kick started his brain. He managed to say, rather shakily, "He gave you his immortality when you took his job." He couldn't believe it, but it was true. He knew it to be so, especially when Aqua nodded her head slowly.

"I'm immortal, Terra. I have to do this job, now," Aqua said firmly as she got to her feet, brushing herself off. She continued, preventing Terra from protesting about why she was going to be the Final Harbinger. "I will _not_ let someone else suffer being immortal. This is a chance for us to help more than just our little corner of the universe, but everyone! This power is too dangerous in the hands of someone who isn't ready."

"How do you know if you're even ready, Aqua? Is it because Johann just…picked you? That bastard was fuckin' insane!" Terra finally replied as he glared at her, trying to fight back, to maybe make her change her mind. He continued with a growl, pointing at Aqua, "How are we going to be Harbingers, anyways? I'm not sure I'm even ready to become pseudo-immortal anyways!"

Aqua understood how Terra felt. She knew she wasn't even fully ready herself, still full of conflicted emotions. But she knew she had to do something. She felt like there was a higher calling, like something or someone was wanting her to be and stay the Final Harbinger. She shook her head and then said, "I'm not sure about some things, like if I can do this…but I have to try. So just give up on making me give up!" Terra was clearly surprised at what she was saying to him, but she continued anyways.

"I will do whatever it takes to get the peace we all deserve…if there's a thing as eternal peace I swear to Kingdom Hearts, _I will seize it!"_

Terra's eyes went wide, feeling the force, the willpower from Aqua's voice. He could see the Aqua he was so familiar with, the one he loved, was still in there, even if she was in agony. Even if she was hurting and suffering inside, the Aqua he loved was there.

And if she was still there, then they could make it through this, somehow.

By now, Aqua turned away from Terra, flicking her right hand out. In the middle of the room, a white and gold portal opened, Aqua looking at her hand and then at the portal. Smiling, Aqua was pleased she could at least manage her powers often enough that making a Walkway was easy enough. Looking back at Terra, Aqua said simply, "I want an answer from you when I come back. Terra, I know that you're afraid, worried…" There was a brief pause before she said with a bright grin, "But I want you at my side, as my Darkness Harbinger. I don't want to do this alone."

"Where are you going?" Terra asked stupidly, worried about where she was going. She was strong enough to deal with anything, but he was more worried about her seemingly erratic state of mind. She had just punched herself hard enough to be fatal to a normal person.

Aqua stared at him like it was the most obvious answer in the universe as she said, "I'm going to find a Harbinger of Nothingness. I can't have positions empty, otherwise…well, bad things can start happening."

Before Terra could question her on what she even meant, Aqua disappeared through the white light, the portal snapping close right away, long before Terra could even more to grab Aqua.

Terra stood there, pondering her request to be the Harbinger of Darkness. He wanted to say yes, but he was afraid alright. This was a realm none of them had been to, but Aqua wanted to just barrel on head, which was unusual for her.

Terra finally flopped down into the couch and let out a groan. For now, he was at a loss on what to do. Today was shaping up to be very stressful, alright.

* * *

><p>Aqua wasn't even sure where she was at. She had just opened a Harbinger Walkway and simply let her heart guide her. This place was at first unfamiliar before her brain told her where she was currently located.<p>

'_This is another form of Earth…but this one has seen better days due to poor management of resources. But it seems the planet's inhabitants are working to restore it!' _Aqua thought happily as she glanced around a ruin cityscape, quickly teleporting to the top of a shorter skyscraper to view the area. Around Aqua were massive skyscrapers, a testimony to human engineering, were in decay. But the thing Aqua noticed the most was several large clearing showing signs of work, as well as small patches of green, indicting planet life. This was signs of humanity busily repairing hundreds of years of foolishness and destruction to their world, Aqua concluded correctly. Aqua focused on the area closest to her for now.

There were mountains of trash being moved by both humans and huge robots that where basically automated trash compressors, labeled WALL-A. But instead of tossing them away, the trash was being recycled, reused to build anew. Aqua could see that robots and humans treated one another equally, that robots seemed to have their own self-awareness as well. The smells of century's old trash mixed with the smell of cleaner air, but the liveliness of this world made Aqua interested greatly.

Here was a world that proved that Johann was not completely correct about humans. Here was a world that could give anyone hope, even if it was still a big mess.

That's when Aqua noticed something that _really_ caught her attention. To the side of all the heavy work was a single woman, whose features Aqua couldn't make out due to the messy grey cloak she was wearing. But the woman was moving metal scraps of all types by herself, making them move to her tune, making rough human shapes of them and making them walk into various types of smelters to be reborn as useful material again. Aqua didn't miss she was mostly alone, either.

'_Is she the reason I was drawn here? She's moving that metal with some sort of power, but I do not know what. But she is quite skilled, too,'_ Aqua watched as the woman made things other than humanoid shapes, like cars, small planes, whatever her mind came up with. Aqua smiled some, enjoying the distant show like an audience before a renowned magician.

Before Aqua was another mutated human, she assumed. A woman much like herself, in a way; having power that others didn't have. But was she merely anti-social or where people afraid of her? Aqua wanted to know. So, without worrying about the results too much, Aqua teleported down to the cloaked figure, landing out of her sight behind a mountain of metal. Aqua then rounded the pile of twisted metal scraps and walked towards the figure.

The figure noticed Aqua right away, clearly taken aback by her appearance. To the woman, Aqua was far better developed than most humans, even herself, so the figure was both curious and suspicious at the same time. As Aqua came to a stop before the cloaked being, the woman asked, in a coarse, rough voice, "Who the hell are you?" She looked over Aqua careful, face hidden by her cloak. The woman saw blue hair, odd clothing, and a figure that made men drool, making her even more uneasy. But at least she was roughly a foot taller than Aqua, being closer to Terra's height.

Aqua already liked the bluntness of this woman. It was refreshing after all the deceptive nature of so many previous enemies. Aqua smiled and replied, in a playful manner to match the woman's roughness, "I'm passing through, you could say. My name is Aqua. What's yours?"

"Why the hell should I answer you? You are completely different from most people…and something about you screams, I dunno, uneasy," the woman replied, unaware that her mind had roughly developed abilities like Aqua and her friends, able to sense the power a person could generate. Aqua was able to correctly guess what the woman was feeling, thinking, _'She doesn't know it, but she's sensing my power. Maybe even sensing my strength that is hidden.'_ But this didn't detour Aqua.

"I told you I was passing through, but I didn't say where from," Aqua replied in a witty manner, making the woman pause and then laugh roughly at this. As the woman laughed, Dark Aqua mused, _'Ya know, your ex-Master would be so pissed at 'cha right now, not hidin' you're from 'nother world. Love it!'_

"You've got a tongue, you know. I sort of like it!" the woman said as she placed gloved hands on her hips, which seemed somewhat wide. "I'm guessing you saw the show, hm? You know, controlling the metal around here. I have the power to control, assimilate, and morph any sort of metal." When Aqua nodded back, the woman snorted a bit and commented offhand, "But you're not afraid. You musta seen some shit before meeting me to not be spooked by it."

'_You have __**no**__ idea,'_ Aqua thought dryly at the woman's comment, responding with a bit of a smile. "You're correct. But you seem to be not surprised yourself. I'm thinking you have a story?"

With a bit of a nod, the woman replied, "I do. You see, some strange old guy—had a bald head, yellow eyes, was really oddly dressed—came by here a while ago. I dunno, maybe thirteen years ago?" Aqua was instantly surprised, because that description sounded a lot like Xehanort. Aqua said nothing as the woman continued, going, "He said he was from another world. I believed him because he summoned some giant key-thing and showed he had powers. He wanted me to join him, but I told 'em to fuck off. Didn't like his tone of voice, but I was a lot weaker than I am now, so he kicked my ass pretty badly and killed my adoptive family." Aqua clenched her hand into a fist, being upset that Xehanort had scarred someone else during his time alive. She was more than happy to know he was dead, a fact she was going to pass onto this woman. The woman then concluded, "He left me to die, left me a lot of scars, but I lived and worked to get strong in case someone else ever came along. Maybe you're that person?"

"No…but I _do_ know the man you speak off," Aqua replied in a lower, angrier tone, something that the cloaked woman didn't miss. To her, it was obvious they seemed to share an intense dislike for Xehanort. Cocking her head to the right, she asked, "Oh yeah? How do you know 'em?"

"He destroyed my life, but I killed him a while ago. He had some…deadly plans to say the least," Aqua replied, making the cloaked woman whistle out in approval, replying, "Well, he seemed like a shitty type. Least my family's deaths wasn't in vain…" It had been so long ago, that this woman had grieved and did her best to move on. But she liked Aqua a lot more, for sure.

"Well, since you killed that bald guy, I'll tell you my name and then you can tell me why you're here," the woman said with a slight chuckle. Aqua perked as the woman moved to take the hood of her cloak off, pulling it back to reveal a tan skinned woman with light blonde hair in a short ponytail. Her right eye was no longer natural, but a whirring blue colored artificial one, while her left eye was brown. There was a jarred scar running down vertically over her right eye that started at her scalp and ended at her chin, this mark left by Xehanort's Keyblade. Her face was cute, though, and she had a slightly smaller nose than normal, and she was missing one of her ears. It was also replaced with metal one. With a cool smirk, the woman said, "My name is Magnild Stahl. It's nice to meet you, Aqua."

'_German? That means…strong battle maiden steel. Odd name…maybe she didn't have one and named herself?'_ Aqua thought before she said, "It's a pleasure, Magnild." But now it was time for Aqua to move on to the topic at hand, going, "Well, since you know there are people from other worlds, I am from one of those worlds, but I am here looking for someone to, well…" Trailing off and looking for a way to word her request, Aqua then finished with, "…help me."

"Help you, hm? Well, I tell you what…I'm a spur of the moment sort of girl. So, I tell you what…I'll help you if you can prove your strength. I don't even care what for, since you seem like a nice girl. A pretty, nice girl that doesn't flaunt their looks or poke fun at my looks," Magnild said with a big grin, her body getting suddenly much heavier, so heavy that her feet cracked and then shattered the ground, going down into self-made holes that stopped at her calves. Aqua was surprised by the sudden weight increase, getting into a fighting stance, but Magnild explained quickly, "I merely used the iron in my blood to make my body a _**lot**_ tougher, like my body is made of dense iron. It's not refined yet, since I haven't been able to keep a lot of mobility, but you'll have a hard time hurting me or moving me, since I weigh two hundred and fifty tons. So, my challenge for you is…"

Magnild smiled and then said, calmly, "I want you pick me up and throw me, if you can, that is. Do that, and I'll help you."

"Why? I mean, you don't even know what I want to have help with. Why are you just doing this?" Aqua asked, finding the woman's sudden change of attitude very surprising, even if it was slightly amusing at the same moment. Just a few moments ago, this woman was defensive and wary. Now, she was more lively, if a bit rough.

Magnild shrugged slightly and replied, "My existence is lonely. People think I killed my family and think I have the powers of a devil. You, you don't judge me. But I ain't gonna serve someone weaker than me, so you need to prove yourself!"

So, there it was. Aqua nodded and walked over to Magnild, stopping before her. The blonde starred back at Aqua's blue eyes, both woman firm and confident. However, Magnild was in for a shock when Aqua reached out, grabbing onto her right hand firmly and said, "Well, hope you're as tough as you look."

Magnild had zero time to process what Aqua meant before she was throw into a pile of metal with a mighty crash, Aqua becoming a blur of motion, blue, black, pink, and flesh color mixing into a tornado of movement. Magnild sputtered and gasped, quickly bursting out of the metal with a cry, body returning to a more normal status. Sweet Jesus, what had just happened? Magnild looked at Aqua, who was now facing her with a small smile. Magnild thought it over before she realized, _'She threw me with brute force so quickly I barely registered it! And that hurt, too. Not super badly, but I sure as hell felt it!'_

She hadn't expected Aqua to be this powerful, but it seemed she had gambled and have very much lost.

"Wow. Damn, you're fuckin' strong! I was sure you couldn't move me. And you're fast as hell, too!" Magnild said in shock, eyes wide with both surprise and glee. This Aqua was a lot strong than the old man had been, which meant she wasn't lying about beating him. Somehow, they were connected by the past, affected by the same man, now drawn together by fate.

"So, it looks like I win," Aqua stated to Magnild, who simply began to chuckle in amusement. She nodded at the blunette and replied, "Won handily, I might add. Well, Aqua, I've got a deal to uphold."

"You've got me on your side. Wherever you gotta go, let's go!" Magnild said as she walked back over to Aqua and placed a hand on her shoulder, grasping it firmly.

Aqua knew, right then and there, she had found her Harbinger of Nothingness.

_**Hello, readers! There was a bit of drama and gore in this chapter, as well as a new OC introduced. Magnild is going to be the new Harbinger of Nothingness, while Terra ponders on being the Harbinger of Darkness. Yes, Magnild is from the WALL-E movie world, but I didn't show those loveable robots for now. They might make appearances later, but I haven't made my mind up yet. Thanks for reading everyone!**_


	5. Chapter 4: Whirlpool

**CHAPTER FOUR: WHIRLPOOL**

At the courtyard before Land of Departure's castle, the birds had gathered in the peace of the land, since no training or human activity was going on here. It was just past noon, so the birds where relaxing from their singing and flying. Many birds gathered here, ranging from sparrows to blue jays, occasional songs coming from the ad hoc chorus. Several birds could be seen gathered around the water dish, getting drinks to satisfy their thirst. The sun kept the fowl warm, rays bathing the stone and giving it a warm, pleasant feeling as the wind ruffled the feathers of the birds.

It was peaceful.

That is until a Corridor of Darkness came to life in the center of the courtyard, sending the birds into an instant panic and flying all directions, loose feathers falling from the sky as the feathery creatures swiftly withdrew from the unnatural creation of darkness and magic. As they withdrew, two people replaced the army of feathered creatures, Aqua and the new arrival Magnild walking through the portal as the last of the birds departed. A small tuff of plumage floated down onto Aqua's nose, making her scrunch up her nostrils and then brush the offending thing before it tickled her nose enough to make her sneeze.

"I hate birds," Magnild managed to say as she looked around the area, a plainly disgusted expression on her face. The partly metal woman had always disliked birds, since all they seemed to do was crap on her, like the damn little demons they were! Aqua looked at her with a confused expression, asking, like a child that didn't understand, "What…?"

"You heard me, damn it! I hate goddamn, feathery little demons known as birds!" Magnild replied back with a snort, crossing her arms as she spoke to Aqua. Aqua was trying not to laugh at the growing spectacle as the German woman continued to rant. As she spoke, she flailed her arms about, one natural eye carrying a devilish gleam. "They poop on everything and then they attack your hair when you 'piss them off!' And they don't shut up! Some might sound pretty, but most sound like a wrinkly bagpipe made out of sheep's skin! Seriously, damn pigeon crap!"

Aqua was trembling from holding back her laughter. She was also slightly red in the face, tears dotting her eyes as she sputtered and snorted. It was a vain attempt to keep in her laughter, of course. Magnild scowled deeply when she realized that Aqua found what she was doing to be _funny._ The woman grumbled something in German, but Aqua, couldn't catch it. For now, Aqua calmed herself, getting serious once again.

"Sorry, sorry. I'll take you to the castle so you can meet my husband and the other Harbinger…"

"Harbinger? Hey, those guys exist!? Well, I knew this was a hell of a deal, little blue bell…" Magnild replied to Aqua, using a nickname for the Keyblade Master and Final Harbinger. Aqua huffed a bit at the woman, but otherwise kept her tact for now. Dark Aqua mockingly said, _'Lil' Blue Bell, Lil' Blue Bell, what did ja see? I saw a lovely hunk o' man meat~'_

'_Why is the __**first**__ thing you say perverted!?' _ Aqua replied to her darker half, a tiny blush coming to her face as her darkness cackled like a little demon. More like a little succubus.

'_Cuz I gotta warp outta here and go get laid!'_ Dark Aqua cooed back to Aqua, making her retort back, _'Stop it! God, you're a pervert!'_

'_Well, I'mma you, so…doesn't that make ya t' pervert?'_

Aqua grunted in response, but then she heard Magnild call out to her as they walked up the steps to the main entrance of the castle, "Earth to blue bell! You're a Harbinger, aren't you?" The woman was falling behind slightly, walking a bit slower than Aqua.

Looking behind herself at the curious new arrival, Aqua merely smiled softly and answered, "I promise to answer everything once we get inside and meet everyone, alright?"

Magnild nodded after a moment of silence. It was an acceptable answer, even if the woman knew she was right. Who would have known that a legend could exist like this! This just seemed to excite the metal user even more. She was much more confident in going with her gut instinct versus saying no to Aqua's offer.

Today was the beginning of a whole new chapter.

* * *

><p>Terra was starting to get worried about Aqua. She had been gone for some time now, having departed to a world somewhere. She didn't even say where! She was behaving strangely. He had placed Isaac down for a nap, allowing him some free time. He had been taking care of his son alone, something he didn't mind, but Aqua had never just left like this, leaving her child to him so easily. She hadn't even told him goodbye. Between that, Xion leaving, and his worry about the future, Terra had taken to trying to vent his mounting frustrations by training. Alone, at first, but his efforts had drawn Stephen's attention, the powerful Light Harbinger offering to train with him. At first, Terra told him to piss off, being angry at him as well for being neutral to his wife's pain. After all, he had done nothing to help her, right?<p>

But then Terra's anger was diffused by both the fact neither he or Aqua knew much about Stephen and the more selfish fact by training with the Light Harbinger, not only could he get stronger, but he could pummel the man silly. It would be a good substitute for anything else, he assumed.

Sadly, he had forgotten just how damn strong the Light Harbinger actually was. The man was still as fierce as ever, even at reduced states of power, like in his human form. Terra was panting from effort, as was Stephen, in the large center of the castle, where Terra, Aqua, and Ventus had always been training while kept inside by their Master. The ground was marred with cracks, gashes, and impacts from attacks, while the walls had become blacked with black, oily smudge. Terra's outfit was torn and burnt by Fire magic, while Stephen had lost his shirt, pants sporting several tears.

"So…thought this was going to be easy?" Stephen taunted with a grin before he charged right at Terra, disappearing before he reached him. Terra grunted, looking around for the fast Light Harbinger, hearing something behind him. He pivoted around just in time to get a Holy empowered kick to the side of the face, the brunette Keyblade wielder gagging in pain as he was thrown away, blood spewing from his mouth. Heels sliding along the ground, Terra managed to stay on his feet and block the follow up attack from Stephen, a Holy spell being deflected with Ends of the Earth, sending the orb flying into the roof. It impacted with a thunderous crash, sending chunks of stone down. Terra didn't wait to allow Stephen to continue his attacks, activating his Command Style Eclipse Volcano. Purple lava covered Ends of the Earth as oily smoke rolled off of Terra.

Stephen observed this Command Style with surprise and awe. He hadn't seen this in their last fight, but something told him that when Terra had the Guardian activated, he couldn't use Command Styles. Stephen eyes widened as Terra moved, cracking the ground as he moved with much greater speed than before. _'Son of a…!'_

A lava coated Keyblade, also carrying the element of Darkness, smashed into his side, impacting his ribs with a crash. The man cried out in pain as his flesh burned from the combined forces of lava and Darkness before he was thrown off his feet, skidding along the ground and leaving a trail of blood and torn ground. He quickly scrambled to his feet, only to get a vicious punch to the face that drilled him back into the ground with a bang, shattering the floor and leaving an eight inch crater in the shape of Stephen's head.

Terra remained standing over Stephen, who was blinking in surprise, dizzy with pain, and pretty much beaten, this time. The brunette dispelled his Command Style with a burst of dark energy, while Stephen groaned a bit. Terra, still angry about the fact Stephen hadn't done more to protect his wife from that bastard Johann, said, "Get up. I want you to talk to me, right now. I have questions and you better give me some fucking answers."

Stephen, with a groan, came to a sitting position before getting to his feet, body already healing from the damage he had taken. He could see the anger in the brunette's eyes, the cobalt eyes swirling with darkness and emotion. He let out a sigh and replied, "Ask away, but I might not have all the answers."

"You will for this. Why? Why didn't you fight back and resist Johann more? Why didn't you try and save my wife from all of the pain?"

Stephen's eyes narrowed a bit. This was going to be unpleasant, because he knew Terra wasn't going to like all of the answers. The Light Harbinger took in a deep breath and then let it out slowly, calming his nerves. Looking to Terra, he replied, "Are you sure you want this? You might not…"

Terra cut him off with a snarl of anger, going, "Don't play that card! I want the answers, not more mind games! Tell me the true!" He was not willing to accept any more dodging of questions, of hiding. He had seen enough of that to make him sick!

Stephen nodded, seemingly ready to spill the beans. "It's simple. After first, I…we…were slow to catch on. Johann didn't just turn evil one day. He didn't just become a monster overnight…" Stephen began with a heavy sigh, remembering various things that should have warned them, that had should have told them something was wrong. "I won't lie, we all agreed that we needed replacements, that we had all been in servitude much too long. But then came the small changes, darker nature. The increasing violence," Stephen continued as he looked Terra dead in the eyes, telling him the truth. He wasn't making excuses; he was telling the truth. "When it got bad enough, I resisted openly, but when we fought…it didn't end well for me. So, I fought back with sabotage for a while, but when he finally caught on…"

"He beat me within an inch of my life. Part of me also believed that the Johann I knew was still there; part of him was, but fear does a lot to a person. I compromised my morals for my corrupted friend and look what it did? Not a goddamn thing…" Stephen grumbled with a shake of his head. Was being loyal to a friend wise when they became corrupt? Stephen had picked wrong and he knew it. "And when he got Aqua, for a moment, I thought I could help her, but he kept her under near constant lock. Aside from Noveus getting in when Johann was away and him allowing me in, Johann was guarding her constantly."

Terra listened, unable to feel angry at this point. Instead, he felt pity at this man; a man who was good, clearly failing because he was afraid. Terra knew the feeling of fear, of being afraid. Being angry at Stephen and using him as a scapegoat was pointless. What did it accomplish? Nothing; it didn't bring the dead back. But what Stephen could do is redeem himself, somehow. Terra had no answers to that on how the Light Harbinger could redeem himself.

"Well…I can't be angry anymore. What's the point? Being pissed at you doesn't bring back the dead…" Terra replied with a sigh, rubbing his temples slightly with his left hand, de-summoning is weapon in a flash of light. Terra paused and said, "You're showing guilty…remorse. And I know you wanna redeem yourself. So, I'll take that, but if you fuck up, I swear to Kingdom Hearts…" There was a moment of pause as Terra's features hardened, a darkened expression replacing his annoyed expression.

"_I will kill you."_

Stephen, hearing this bone chilling threat, instead of being afraid, smiled and replied, "I expect it, Terra." In fact, he seemed to welcome the threat with wide arms, wanting the man to stand for what he believed in. But both of them had come to a mutual understanding for now. But now, Terra's attention shifted to behind Stephen, which made Stephen turn as well. The source of their attention was the arrival of Aqua and some other woman in the main all of the castle.

Aqua was walking down the hall, with Magnild in tow. The woman was interesting in her surrounds, but her attention, like Aqua's was on the two men at the middle of the massive hall they were in right now. There were signs of damage from a recent fight or maybe training; whatever the reason, Magnild was curious. Aqua, while not as curious, knew that Terra and Stephen had been training hard, but she had also caught the end of Terra and Stephen's conversation. The words 'I will kill you' rang in Aqua's mind, but she remained composed on the outside, smiling some.

'_For some reason, I can tell those two guys are very strong…my heart is racing as I get closer to them!'_ Magnild thought in a mixture of excitement and interest as she and her escort came to a halt before Terra and Stephen. Terra had an expression of neutrality, while Stephen appeared to be interested. Aqua, looking to Terra for a moment, turned a bit to Magnild. Gesturing to Magnild with her right arm, Aqua said, "Everyone, this is Magnild. She's volunteered to help us and be the new Harbinger of Nothingness."

Terra might have expected surprise, maybe anger, from the partly cybernetic woman, but she did the opposite of what was expected. If anything, much to Terra's surprise, the woman was excited! She pumped her fists happily, cackling some. She smiled widely and replied, "Hell yeah. Once I found out you were a Harbinger, something told me that's what you wanted my help for. Caught it, hook, line, and sinker!"

"Heyo, Magnild. My name's Stephen Black; I'm the current Light Harbinger. A pleasure," Stephen said to her, a grin coming to his face as he nodded to the excited woman. He was pleased to see that Aqua was taking her duty seriously, although they were still lacking a Darkness Harbinger. Glancing to Terra, who still appeared to be at a loss for words or feeling at the moment, he wondered if the man would take Noveus's position. Aqua wanted him to; he knew that much.

When Terra didn't speak to Magnild, the woman cocked her head slightly. What was this guy's issue? Aside from both he and Stephen looking like they had been in some very heated training, Magnild didn't see anything that would make him anti-social. Did she smell bad or something? Glancing to Aqua, the woman said, "So, is he normally an anti-social dick?"

"Terra…" Aqua began to her husband, an expression of worry on her face. She was too concerned with Terra to be offended by Magnild's bluntness as Terra blinked a few times and then sighed heavily. Terra finally had enough of being silent and see Aqua just move forward so _easily._ It was like Aqua was just compartmentalizing her feelings; Terra didn't like it one bit. After a moment, he looked at Magnild, nodding as he said, "It's nice to meet you, Magnild, but…can I talk to my wife alone?" He looked right at Aqua, a very flat expression on his face as Aqua's eyes narrowed slightly and she frowned at him. Magnild and Stephen looked at one another for a moment, but Stephen sensed that something was going to happen and they didn't need to be here for the conversation that was going to occur between Aqua and Terra.

"Come on. I'll take you to the kitchen. Maybe make you something to eat?" Stephen offered the cybernetic woman, anything to get Magnild and himself away from here. Magnild, wordlessly, followed the Light Harbinger, looking back as Stephen lead her away from Terra and Aqua, the couple staring down one another fiercely, with neither side showing any willingness to back down. Magnild frowned as she thought, _'I got a bad feeling about this.'_

After Aqua and Terra where alone, Aqua finally said, "What is wrong with you!? You are treating our guest like she's a disease." She seemed pissed that Terra was acting cold and distant, acting like he was above Magnild. He was mad, she could tell, but if he was so upset, why couldn't he take his anger out on her rather than the others? Wasn't he angry because of her?

He frowned, no, scowled at her deeply, made even more pissed when she instantly became combative with him, not even trying to ease into this or be kind. She was just being so…wrong. She was acting all wrong!

"Don't pull that card. Look at you, Aqua! You're just replacing our friends after they leave or become useless! You're acting odd, you're acting all wrong! And you…you think what you're doing in normal!?" Terra retorted to her as he dared to take a couple of steps forward at Aqua, making her grit her teeth, baring them in a snarl as he pushed her buttons now with his bluntness and anger.

"How…how _dare_ you! I didn't ask for Xion to leave! I didn't want her to, either, so don't are dare pin the blame for her departure on me!" Aqua yelled back, standing her ground as Terra clenched his hands into fists, anger surging into his veins, his entire body heating up from being so angry. But Aqua, she could feel her power surging as well as her emotions made the energy within her surge and spike. "I'm not replacing friends…but I have to fill these positions! It's my job now, Terra; nothing will change that!"

"Your job?!" Terra growled back at his wife, feel a few blood vessels stand out on his body, popping up under his skin. Continuing his ranting, Terra pointed at her and snarled, "Why can't you give it to someone else?! I don't want to be pseudo-immortal and I don't want you to be immortal! I don't want to sit here and watch our child grow old, but we remain young…I can't image watching our son and his family all die while we live!"

"Shut up! I'm not wanting that either! I don't want to see that! But I can't just…just leave this position! I _can't _do that!" Aqua screamed back as she felt her entire body shaking from a combination of anger and power wanting release. "I want your help, Terra, why can't you see that!? I don't want to do this alone…" Why was it that they were arguing? Why was this happening? Aqua just wanted a happy ending, a peaceful life. Why couldn't she have that? Why couldn't they all have that?

"All this is doing is dragging our lives into a whirlpool of anger and rage! I was used as a murder and destroyer once…but never again!" Terra screamed at Aqua, but this time, his words hurt her deeply. Her blue orbs went wide with horror; her husband was actually suggesting that she was going to employ them like Johann did? As murderers, destroyers, chaos bringers…that's what Terra assumed. She was aghast at how little faith he had of her.

Terra seemed to realize he had picked the wrong words to use here; coupled with a dangerous surge of power from Aqua, the hurt that was written on her face was plain. Tears were swimming in her eyes as she bit her lower lip, trying to not cry. She couldn't believe that Terra was looking down on her so much.

Finally, Aqua snapped, for a moment, Aqua's expression morphed into rage, eyes glowing for but a millisecond before she acted.

With a resounding snap, Aqua's hand impacted Terra's face, taking him off of his feet with a cry of pain escaping Terra's throat as he crashed into the stone floor side first. Aqua was shaking so much that her legs nearly gave out from under her. But she was so very, very angry and hurt by Terra. Dark Aqua was completely silent through all of this, hurt as well, horrified at both her mother figure and the man they both loved. This wasn't supposed to be happening!

Aqua's rage became hurt as he face changed to one of hurt again, but she was so upset at herself for hitting Terra. At the same time, she was so furious with him for treating her like garbage. She was torn between them, but soon settled on acting on what Terra did to her.

Aqua spoke, voice wavering and cracking under emotional strain. "Get the fuck away from me, Terra. Just…just leave me alone!" Aqua commanded, stepping back as her husband sluggishly moved into a sitting position, blood dripping from his broken nose. He was silent, face emotionless as he processed the fact that he had been brutally slapped and he had really hurt his wife. But when he reached out, she smacked his hand away, sobbing a bit.

"Don't touch me! You think that you can say that, compare me to Xehanort and Johann!? I'm your wife, not some…some beast! How could you? How could you!?" Aqua blubbered as she took a few more steps from Terra, tears starting to fall. She finally rasped out softly, "You promised to not hurt me again…you _promised."_

"Aqua…" Terra began before she cut him off with a snarl, making him go silent once again, remaining in his sitting position as Aqua finally turned and ran away, heading into the hallways that would lead to her and Terra's room. Terra didn't give chase as he hung his head low, feeling shame once again.

The whirlpool of rage was taking victims right now…but could things be made right in the end?

Terra wished he had an answer right now.

* * *

><p><strong>Well, that is chapter four! Please, feel free to PM me if you want to ask questions or just talk! I apologize for how long it took to update. I've been going back to school, getting a degree for Railroad Operations. Honestly, it has been extremely enjoyable, but very busy for sure! <strong>

**Aqua and Terra are having it rough, but Aqua is certainly mentally damaged and her mentality is fragile as well. She's not over Ven's death and she's just trying to grasp onto something that could result in normalcy. She's torn between duty and wanting to escape this cruel fate, but knows duty comes first in the end. **


	6. Chapter 5: Looking Over the Edge

**CHAPTER 5: LOOKING OVER THE EDGE**

Aqua felt like she was looking over the edge of insanity. Every fiber of her being felt like it was drifting into limbo; that she was floating into the abyss. Ever since she had argued with her husband, Aqua was finding that peace she do desperately craved was slipping further and further from her grasp. Peace might as well be covered in butter right now, because getting a grasp onto it was nigh impossible.

A heavy sigh escaped her lips as she walked into the commons room, having elected to come here rather than disturb Isaac while he was sleeping. She walked to the couch that she normally loved to curl up on with Terra and flopped down into it. It was cold, lacking any warmth right now, much like how Aqua was feeling. Closing her eyes, Aqua tried to clear her mind, but found that was not possible. Terra's words and accusations echoed in her mind, as well as so many unsaid things.

'_Should I have gone after Xion? At the time, I was too shocked to react, but I could have searched for her after I got over my shock,'_ Aqua thought, starting to try and make heads or tails of this mess she and her friends found themselves in. Xion was gone; had that been her fault? Could she have even controlled that? Or could she avoided Xion's departure all together?

'_Darlin', it ain't cha fault Xion left. And goin' after her would have made it worse. Xion was gonna leave no matter what. When Ven-Ven died…I think she blamed us for it, ya know? We didn't save him…we failed, so…our request just forced the issue,'_ Dark Aqua replied to her mother figure, wanting to reassure her and calm down the Final Harbinger. Helping Aqua was Dark Aqua's top priority no matter what; everyone else was secondary.

"I guess. She would have turned me away…" Aqua responded out loud to her dark counterpart. "Xion made her choice. To try and make her stay would have made things so much worse…" She accepted this as reality now. It was easier for Aqua to accept this reasoning rather than speculate any further on Xion. But Aqua really didn't feel any better.

"But then," Aqua began before she paused, trying not to break into tears over the topic of Terra's harsh words. "Terra…everyone else. Do they _really_ think I am a monster? I feel so…so isolated. People just judge me without bothering to talk to me. They just assume," Aqua said softly as she held her quivering hands up, inspecting her palms. Why was she being looked down on so much and judged so harshly? She didn't understand. Hadn't she proved herself time and again? She had given everything to defeat Xehanort, Kefka, Chernabog, and Johann. She had given her all for good; wasn't that a showing that she was trustworthy?

'_You're not…you ain't a monster! Don't let these mind games get to ya. You're just tryin' to make things better! And if they'd just listen 'n stop hurtin' you…'_ Dark Aqua replied to the Final Harbinger, who pulled her legs up to her chest, shivering as she did so. A spike of power came once again as her heart thundered in her chest, feeling like it was going to race away.

While Aqua was caught up in her own self-pity and anger, she failed to notice some dark figure forming behind her, taking shape slowly and rising up like a specter from Hell itself. Two glowing red eyes form and then locked onto Aqua before the figure silently walked forward towards Aqua.

"Hurting me. Hurt…I'm hurting so much!" Aqua rasped out as she felt her heart pulse quite painfully, a single horn growing out the side of her head. She wanted them to feel her pain, too. All the people in her life who didn't understand might understand a little if they could only feel Aqua's pain as well. All the mental torture, the physical torture, the pain of losing so many people, seeing so many people die in such a short period of time, and then being forced into a duty she didn't really want nor could she escape from. She _wanted _them to feel her pain too!

However, any dark fantasies that she might be forming died in her mind when an ice cold hand slapped onto her shoulder and gripped her flesh firmly. She felt her eyes go wide from the sudden system shock, teeth clacking together noisily as her jaw clenched. Spurred into action, Aqua scrambled off of the couch, falling to all fours before coming to her feet in a hurry. Pivoting around, Aqua was about to give whoever thought it would be cute or funny to place such a freezing cold arm on her shoulder.

But her annoyance instantly shriveled to nothing at who the culprit was. The color drained from Aqua's face as her vocal cords constricted tightly, rendering her voice useless. Aqua felt her knees go numb and weak, shaking tremendously before her legs buckled and she dropped with a thump. Her entire body was froze and her mind blank as a unholy terror seized Aqua.

'_No no no no no no no no no no no no no…not real, not possible!'_ Aqua and Dark Aqua rambled within Aqua's mind, a rasping squeak coming from Aqua's throat as the figure approached her slowly, steps like the hands of a clock ticking down. Aqua's eyes squeezed shut as tears fell now.

Oh, how badly she wanted Terra, right here and now.

* * *

><p>'<em>You promised not to hurt me again…you <em>_**promised!'**_

Terra could hear those words lopping endlessly in his mind as he finished cleaning himself up, putting on his normal combat attire, making sure the pieces of his armor were tightly secured on his frame. He had come to his and Aqua's room, checking on Isaac and seeing the baby was very much awake. Uncharacteristically, Terra gave Isaac several toys and didn't give him much mind. Mostly, had originally been dirty, but it was also because he had too much on his mind to properly play with his son. Terra was just really going through the motions at this point, simply doing and not thinking about what he was doing.

Terra was thinking about what he had done.

While Terra was upset with Aqua, he had made grievous errors of lumping her in with Xehanort and Johann. He didn't know what her plans or goals where, but there was no way in Hell she was going to do what Xehanort did to Terra. This was _Aqua_ he was talking about. And right now, she was confused and overwhelmed with the responsibility of being the Final Harbinger. Terra was making her stress levels rocket to new heights for being overly cautious.

But he couldn't completely blame himself. He was afraid, too. He was always afraid that, when given a chance to change something, he'd make things worse and hurt those he loved. But really, if he had just agreed with Aqua and became the new Darkness Harbinger, maybe he could have avoided hurting her.

There was a spike of power from Aqua; nothing huge right now, but it caught his attention. She was close, within the commons room where everyone used to hang out. Terra faced in the general direction of the power spike before looking at Isaac, who was in a large playpen. The baby looked right back at him, giggling a bit, despite the serious look on Terra's face. This made Terra smile back and go, "You know…son, I've been very mean to mommy. I said bad things to her. And I hurt her, a lot. But…I realize that I need to help mommy."

Isaac gabbed back at him and laughed a bit, flinging a stuffed Winnie the Pooh plushy up and down in his right hand before bringing it to his mouth and chewing on it. Terra only smiled more at this. "I love you son…I'll go get mommy, alright?" He moved to Isaac, leaning down and kissing his son on the top of his head. Isaac giggled and mimicked Terra, planting a sloppy kiss on Terra's chin. This only served to make Terra chuckle in amusement as he wiped off his chin.

With that, Terra swiftly departed the room, heading to the common room, already thinking over what he was going to say to her. After all, she was likely still incredibly upset with him. He talked to himself as he walked, getting closer to the commons room. After all, he needed to practice a bit, so try and make sure that he didn't make her detonate again.

"So, Aqua, I'm really sorry about the things I said. I was being stupid…no, that's not going to work. She'll just note I always am stupid," Terra noted drily before he paused a bit, coming to a halt in the hallway, and then facepalmed. Did he just insult himself? He really needed to stop doing that; it was like letting people transform into more powerful forms. They really needed to stop letting that happen. But he was getting off track.

Trying again as he resumed walking, Terra began, "Aqua, I'm always gonna be me. I can't change that I'm blunt and sometimes stupid. But I want to help you. I'm ready to…"

Terra stopped practicing when he heard Aqua scream bloody murder, along with her power spiking erratically. He quickly felt his heart skip a few beats as he rushed at the commons room, panicking as Aqua screamed again, hearing her voice break as she yelled, _"NO!_ Get your hands off of me! Get away from me, you bastard!"

At first, Terra thought that Stephen was attacking Aqua or some new enemy was assaulting her. But when he heard that voice, Terra didn't even stop as he rushed at the door and smashed into it, shattering it into splitters and sending hunks of wood flying. He knew that voice; he knew the attacker.

"**I promised you…I'd always been in your nightmares."**

When Terra saw Aqua being pinned to the wall by her wrists by none other than a dark form of Johann, the man chuckling as Aqua struggled and kicked at him wildly, panicking and screaming, incoherent words coming from her mouth between her screams as terror drove her mad, Terra didn't even wait to ask questions. Rage instantly seized him and he acted. He charged, Ends of the Earth being summoned in an instant before he flung it right at Johann's side. Johann's dark form, wisps of darkness rolling off of him, ducked away from the Keyblade and let Aqua go, who dropped to her backside, quickly curling into a fetal position as she cried, her eyes wide and dilated to pinpoints. She was hyper ventilating, nearly going into a seizures as she gasped raggedly for breath.

"Get the fuck away! I don't know how you're around, but leave Aqua alone! Haven't you fucked with her enough, you motherfucker!?" Terra roared as he stayed in front of Aqua's shaking form, doing his best to stay focused on this even more devilish form of Johann. What the hell was going on? How the hell was that bastard alive?

"**Heh…heh…heh…"** was all Johann, with those unnerving blood red eyes, replied to Terra before he glanced at Aqua, who, upon looking back, rasped out a weak cry and instantly backed into the wall, unleashing another cry of jumbled words. Just the monster being here was enough to drive Aqua totally mad. And Terra was not going to stand by and let him do this, not anymore! Terra snarled furiously as he charged right at Johann, ready to slice through him with Ends of the Earth. Instead, the man vanished instantly, like a phantom as Ends of the Earth reached him, disappearing like he had never been there. Ends of the Earth hit the ground with a crunch, digging into the wood half way up the Keyblade's form. Looking around rapidly, Terra realized Johann was gone before quickly de-summoning his weapon by simply letting go and rushing to his wife.

"Aqua!" Terra said as he reached her, trying to grab onto her, to comfort her. Instead she shrieked in terror, eyes unfocused and wild looking as she swung and kicked, trying to escape her assailant. Several wild strikes hit Terra's face and neck, as well as kicks hitting his legs, but the man took these hits in stride, as they lacked focus. Terra was persistent in his attempts, grabbing the bluenette's wrists as she screamed once again, trying to get her to calm down. "C'mon Aqua, snap out of hit! He's gone! It's me, Terra!"

"Ven! Johann! All of _hell_ is around me, the world is screaming, everyone is _burning!_ Let me go, let me go, I won't let you, you, you…!" Aqua yelled back, her words merely a representation of her mind going into extreme overdrive, spindle flying from her mouth as she continued to spiral out of control. Her left eye was dilated to a pin point, while the other was huge and black hues in her eyes. Terra, feeling a very dangerous level of power spiking, as well as an all-too-familiar aura of white, purple, gold, blue, and black energy swirling around Aqua, knew he had to stop her before she transformed and really started causing damage. Terra did this by shaking her roughly, snapping her head back and forth as he screamed, "Goddamn it Aqua, he's _gone!_ Come back to me, to us, or you're gonna hurt your friends, our baby!"

That did the trick. Aqua gasped loudly as her eyes rolled into the back of her head, jaw clenching down as she spasmed several times. She then slumped over against Terra breathing shallowly as Terra just held onto her tightly. He refused to let her go from his embrace as Aqua shook and trembled, the system overload of seeing Johann just too much for Aqua to handle. By now, he noticed a horn extending from the side of her head, but the object was slowly regressing into her skull. Aqua must have already been in so much a panic her powers had been going haywire long before Terra's arrival. How long had Johann been here, attack his wife with who knows what sort of mind games and torture. But right now, Terra just held on to Aqua's quivering form.

Terra wasn't sure how long he had been holding her when he heard her whimper and finally speak, going, "I can't do this…I can't do this, I can't do this, I can't do this."

"Aqua…" Terra whispered softly as he held his wife, the blunette burying her face into his chest as she sobbed pathetically, letting out all these bottled up feelings vent and rage. She felt her hands clenched onto Terra's shoulders as she held onto him like a lifeline. Aqua continued to sob and choke out words to Terra.

"I can't live like this, wanting to do right and be so isolated, being plagued by demons, being hated by everyone…I can't _do this,"_ Aqua said, looking up to Terra slowly as she hiccupped. Terra brushed the tears from her eyes and she didn't stop him as he cried, silently now, along with her. "I don't want to be alone again. I don't wanna be alone. Please, please, please, I am _begging_ you, don't let me do this alone."

It was time for Terra to give his answer. He had been practicing before this moment, but now, this was it. No amount of thinking could really prepare someone for a in the moment speech.

"I won't."

Terra's reply to her made Aqua just stare in awe as he looked at her with determination. He had…changed his mind? Aqua didn't reply as he continued, going, "I thought about it. I realize I have to help you. When I saw Johann again…and you struggling, so afraid, and alone, that only proved changing my mind is the right thing to do. I will _not_ let you do this alone." He leaned down and gently kissed Aqua on the lips, making her kiss back some, still too shocked to really act. "I will be your Darkness Harbinger. I will be there to help you. We _will_ make sure you control your power and we _will _change the image of the Harbingers. We can do this because with a strong enough belief, anything can be done."

Aqua blinked away free tears as her fear was replaced with joy. She began to smile before she laughed, softly at first before it grew into an overjoyed, relieved laugh that almost sounded insane. She managed to speak after a bit, going, "Terra, you…you…you're such a jerk sometimes. You hurt me and then you come back and I just can't stay angry at you."

'_That's cuz ya love 'em…duh,'_ Dark Aqua muttered in slight amusement at how forgiving Aqua really was to Terra. Most other woman would have abandoned such a relationship, but Aqua never ever gave up. _'Darlin', this is it. We can make a different. Fuck 'em if they can't take a joke.'_

"I'm so sorry, Aqua. I want my wife, my lover, and my son's mommy happy. And damn it all to Kingdom Hearts, I will do whatever it takes, even put aside my anger at Stephen, to make it so…" Terra replied with a firm voice before Aqua, smiling widely and still tear stained, laughed happily and tackled Terra over, hugging him as she actually squealed with delight. Terra laughed back at her as he hugged her before she kissed him with vigor, teeth clicking together as they unleashed their passion. Terra's right hand ran through Aqua's hair as she kissed him, making her purr against his lips, the vibrations feeling great against his teeth and tongue. Tongues battled one another for dominance as Aqua and Terra kissed nearly frantically.

Finally, Terra broke the kiss first, Aqua whining a bit as he did so. "Hey…you own me! You made me cry and you really made me mad, so…"

"So how about you and I fix that by fucking one another's brains out?" Terra replied with a devilish smirk, making Aqua blush a bit at how assertive he was being.

"There's something I can agree with…" Aqua cooed in response to Terra, tracing her right hand across his muscular, hidden chest. "You've been a naughty, mean boy. And you need to be 'punished.'"

Aqua stood up and helped Terra to his feet as he replied with a chuckle and a smirk, "You know, I never pegged you as being such a closet pervert." He'd always assumed she would be much, much more reserved than this, but he sure wasn't complaining about it.

Aqua already was recovered enough to allow her to come back with a witty reply to Terra. She placed her right hand on her hip and replied with an impish grin, "Terra, we've fought together, nearly died on several occasions, and have had a baby together. I don't _need _to be a closet pervert with you anymore."

"Point taken…" Terra replied with a grin as he grabbed his wife's right hand and began to pull her along. Aqua followed him with a smile on her face as her hand gripped Terra's firmly. She was feeling…better. A lot better, but the back of her mind knew that that Johann was real, extremely real.

But for now, Aqua and Terra just wanted to throw away all responsibility and only perform the duty of lovers.

* * *

><p><strong>Well, plot twist everyone! That Johann was not a fake; it was also not a complete. But it sure scared Aqua to death. Johann, even in death, is fulfilling his promise of being her nightmare when she started going astray. <strong>


	7. Chapter 6: Feel

CHAPTER SIX: FEEL

Fire was the feeling between Terra and Aqua. Both of them long for the touch that made their nerves come to life with burning passion; the feeling of heat rushing through the fiber of their being, growing heavily in their hearts and nether regions. They wanted it more than anything and, right now, they could care less where. They wanted one another right here and now.

Maybe they were bad parents for being in the same room as their son while they began to yank, tear, and pull off clothing, which was tossed away carelessly. Maybe they would be frowned on the spirits of fallen parents and a fallen Master, but Aqua and Terra had been through so much that nothing mattered right now but to show one another love, affection, and caring. As they moved closer to the bed, there was less and less clothing on their bodies, Isaac busy with his toys and actually not paying any attention to his parents and their actions.

The bed creaked under the lovers creeping onto it, with Terra on his back and Aqua straddling him, her breasts jiggling and grabbing Terra's attention as he licked his lips. Hands moved up and under her black bikini style bottoms, Terra's hands under the fabric and planted on her backside, squeezing the flesh firmly, her breasts squished against his muscular, powerful chest as she leaned down to lick and suckle on his chest and nipples. Terra groaned as a result, enjoying this attention that was making him beyond hard and hot. He was raging down there. Aqua's heart was pounding; she could feel his heart as well as she planted small kisses along his collar bone and up his neck, all while his hard member poked her inner thigh. She moaned in delight and Terra groaned, even now, before they had even gotten to the more intimate parts of love.

Terra's member was pounding and throbbing for her touch, but his hands continued to play with her firm rump, while he traded roles with her and began to nibble on her earlobe, sucking in gently, which earned him a soft whimper. His mouth moved down, along her sensitive neck as he sucked and nipped at the supple flesh. One hand freed itself from the temptation of Aqua's lovely backside and moved to her plump breasts, attacking the right one. A firmly tug and a slight twist made Aqua's eyes close as pleasure exploded through her nerves. She was getting so hot and wet. Aqua hotly said to her husband, "Terra…ohhh…."

"Aqua…I love you. I'm here for you," Terra told his wife with tenderness and care, hand continuing to play with her breasts, switching from one nipple to another. Aqua couldn't handle it much longer; her own hand moved to Terra's cock and grasp the shaft firmly, pumping it up and down with firm, slow strokes, earning a shaky gasp from Terra as his head rolled back in pleasure. The heat of Terra's member was pleasant against Aqua's palm as she stroked up and down, with rhythmic motions.

Planting a kiss on Terra's lips firmly while she played with his cock and he continued to assault her breasts, Aqua groaned out with a pleasured tone, "Together…forever…Terra. I want you." She quickly lunged down and planted her lips onto Terra's once again, feeling his member throbbing against her palm. Tongue slide against one another slowly, gently, coupled with intermediate suckling of tongues and lower lips bu either lover. She didn't want any fancy moves, no kinkiness today. She didn't want to have sexual intercourse in a transformed state. Aqua wanted to have passionate, but gentle love with her husband as she was. She pulled away from the kissing, looking at Terra as he looked back to her, his hands going up and down her back, smooth skin feeling so divine against Terra's rough palms.

Terra, judging from his look, was in no mood to protest anything she was doing.

Aqua's hand no longer was pumping his cock, Terra noted as he stared into Aqua's eyes, cobalt meeting blue. None of them said anything to one another and the only noises where of their breathing and Isaac's laughter while he played with toys in his overly large playpen. But to the lovers, they didn't even notice that noise. Finally, Aqua leaned back down, warm breath going over Terra's ear as she spoke to him, the desire in her voice so thick it was positively dripping off of every word.

"Let me mount you…"

"Do it. I want to make you feel good, Aqua."

Aqua, biting her lower lip, pulled away from Terra after he responded to her. Still straddling Terra, Aqua, rather than get the time to remove the rest of her clothing, simply moved her panties aside and plunged down on Terra's raging hard, hot member. The plunging motion made Aqua scream in pleasure, throwing her head back, breasts bouncing from the motion as her hands gripped at the sheets of their bed. Terra groaned as well, wasting no time in thrusting up into his wife, her weight allowing for much deeper penetration.

Aqua's chest bounced up and down to the beat of Terra's thrust, while the bluenette's hips rolled while she was being thrust into. This was so good, so _right._ Terra's hands clenched at the sheets as well, as Aqua's walls clenched onto his cock, making him close his eyes as he loudly moaned. He could hear Aqua's short, sharp gasps as he thrust in before going back and then thrusting forward again.

However, regardless of the pleasure in his mind, his very heart, Terra duly noted that Aqua's power was spiking up and down as they had sex. But right now, Terra just didn't care. She could start casting spells when she came, but Terra just didn't care!

Hands snapped up to the sides of Aqua's hips, fingers digging into her supple, velvety flesh. Aqua's head rolled back as her juices covered Terra's cock, her walls clenching tighter while his cock throbbed more and more. She wanted him to cum inside her, to completely unload into her. She wanted everything he had to offer. There was so much heart between Aqua and Terra: Terra felt like the head of his cock was on fire, while Aqua felt like a heated iron rod had been pushed up into her warm cavern.

Soon, the sweat was sparkling on both of their bodies. Aqua's hand tweaked her nipples firmly as she rode her husband while the thrust strongly and deeply into her. His hands spread her cheeks apart for a moment before they traveled to her breasts, forcing Aqua's hands away from her chest and back to the bed, to clench those sheets once again. Instead, Terra assault her breasts, tugging her sensitive nubs roughly, followed by gently rubbing his thumbs over them. Aqua whimpered and moaned in enjoyment. He was so _good_ at this. She gasped out his name, muscles convulsing from the pleasure that was raging through her nerve endings.

Aqua wanted this to last, but her body wasn't going to listen to her. She was going to lose it, without warning to either lover. Terra began to buck into Aqua rapidly as his hips moved, the bed creaking and shaking as Terra began to pound his wife, growling as he did so. He wanted to make her scream! He wanted to know, without a shadow of a doubt, that Aqua was happy, that she was pleasured right. She desired it; she deserved it!

"Cum into me, damn it! Terra! _**Terra~! I love you! I love YOU!"**_ Aqua screamed as her eyes rolled up into the back of her head as her walls clenched onto Terra mightily, her juices gushing onto his cock and out of her as she came suddenly and violently. Her tongue rolled out even as she arched back impossibly, screaming at the top of her lungs. Terra, meanwhile, also promptly lost it. His cock pulsated rapidly, releasing spurts of hot, sticky cum into Aqua, the man roaring like a barely restrained demon as he came inside Aqua. His hips pushed up hard, lifting Aqua up as he did so, making her let out a stream of strangled curses and moans. He was making her curse a lot; he was pleased she was.

"_**I love you, Aqua! I LOVE you!"**_ Terra howled before he finally stopped cumming inside Aqua, spent and panting as he went limp. Aqua, twitching from another pleasurable overload, slumped forward and then against Terra, panting heavily, tears actually running down her face. Her eyes, like Terra's where closed, her hands against his chest as dull, after waves of cumming, pulsed through both her and Terra's body.

Several minutes passed and neither lover moved. Their ragged breaths calmed into more even, steady tones. Aqua opened her eyes first, but didn't look at Terra, a smile coming to grace her features. That had been wonderful. It had been the first time they had had sex since she had been captured, since the final fight with Johann. And it had been absolutely amazing.

Terra, opening his own eyes, stared at the ceiling, but he was pleased. No, he was jumping with joy inside his heart. That sex had definitely been in the top five, without a doubt. She had been so tight, but what really was the best was her voice. That musical moaning, those crescendo screams, raw from Aqua's throat…all of it was divine to Terra.

Finally, Terra spoke first, breaking the calming silence. His voice made Aqua look up towards him as he said, "That was fuckin' amazing." There was really not proper way for Terra to sum his feelings up right now. Aqua almost scolded him for foul language, but elected to leave that one alone. She hadn't forgotten she had cursed worse than a drunken sailor on Friday night after a nine month deployment. She smiled at him and replied, "Ditto."

By now, Isaac began to cry, because he was very hungry. Aqua jumped at the noise, pulling herself off of Terra while she looked from Terra to Isaac's playpen and then back to Terra. Terra's head tilted down as he looked at Isaac for a moment and then to Aqua. He noticed she was giving him a look of 'Please, I'm currently stuffed full of your semen and need to clean up a little?' But Terra smirked at her, not letting her out of this one. He had been taking care of Isaac enough lately; Aqua needed to be the loser this time.

Coughing a bit, Aqua realized she wasn't making any headway with Terra today. Besides, despite the fact they had just had some seriously awesome intercourse, Aqua wanted to care for her child; she was a mother, not just a fighter and a Final Harbinger. She had the motherly duties to attend to. Right now, she wanted to simply be a mommy and nothing else. She smirked and said, "Let's go feed Isaac. You can watch…I'll take care of him. I'm sorry I've been…"

Instead, a finger silenced her, much to Aqua's surprise as it slipped into her mouth, Aqua's lips going around Terra's left index finger. She blushed a bit as Terra reassured her with a confident grin, "Don't apologize. It's ok, really. Besides, I know you're not shrinking away from being a mother because you want too. This has been hard on all of us…" Aqua blinked before she pulled his finger from her mouth, blinking as she opened her mouth. Clearly, she wanted to say something, but was struggling to find the words. Her mouth closed before she closed her eyes and then opened them again, staring at Terra.

"…Terra, I want…I…" Aqua replied before Isaac's crying got much worse and she looked to her son's playpen. She swiftly got to her feet, Terra confused at her sudden bashfulness. What was getting at her right now? Was it something he had said? Or something more than his words? Getting up, he watched Aqua hurriedly throwing on clothing, a pair of light blue pajama pants, followed by a black bra, and then a light pink t-shirt. Terra watched her as he moved to the playpen, reaching in to grab Isaac, the baby calming down some as his mother picked him up.

Before Aqua could withdraw, Terra, who was putting on his boxers, called out to her. His voice stopped Aqua in her tracks, back facing the tall, muscular man. She was caught now; he was much too stubborn to let anything go easily. Terra asked her, simply, "What's wrong? I can tell you want to say something pretty badly."

Aqua bit at her lower lip, which began to tremble. Why was she so emotional? Maybe it was because Aqua was going to ask Terra something that might upset him. Terra had matured so much lately, controlling his Darkness, becoming wiser, and becoming better. Aqua knew his dream had always been to be a Keyblade Master, but she knew only a few people could grand that title. Sora was too new to the role of Master and still depressed over the death of Riku to just take on people to train. That left King Mickey, Aqua, and Yen Sid.

"Terra…I want you to not only be my Darkness Harbinger, but…you…" Aqua began before she choked up some. She coughed a few times, Isaac squirming in her grip. Terra blinked as she turned to face him, looking torn up right now. But Terra let her power through her emotions and spit out what she wanted to say. But what she did finally say would make Terra's jaw drop open slightly and his eyes go wide with shock.

"Terra…let me make you a Keyblade Master! You…have the same dream, right?"

Terra was floored completely. He hadn't forgotten about his dream, but so many things had been happening lately that it had just been placed on the back burner. The universe needed help, so dreams and goals would always be placed secondary in Terra's mind. The danger had to be dealt with first and peace restored. But here he was, his wife wanting to offer him another chance. The question was could he take it?

For once, Terra found himself at the answer. There was no fear, no worry. He wanted to do it right, however, and prove himself. He was not going to just accept the title. Maybe he had proved himself with Johann, but to Terra, he needed to defeat a threat and not falter halfway through. Terra smiled at her and replied, "I want to earn it fairly. So if you give me a task that would earn me the title of Keyblade Master, then I will gladly work for my dream again. I don't want a handout."

The woman before Terra began to smile widely, tears in her eyes. She was overjoyed at his reply! She wanted to give him the chance; she knew that he wasn't into free handouts. That wasn't Terra's way, really. She nodded at him and said, "Absolutely. I want to help you. I know…you can become a Master, Terra. You deserve it so much…"

Terra, smirking back, responded, "One thing at time. I think our baby is starving to death."

Aqua, taking that little jab at her in stride, laughed musically at Terra's response, before she replied, "Then let's make Isaac happy. Get dressed, alright?"

Nodding, Terra got dressed as Aqua departed, heading out ahead of him. She was beaming, in an extremely good mood as she walked down the hallway to the kitchen. Maybe they could finally free themselves from the dark cloud over this castle…

Aqua believed they could.

* * *

><p>"Daa, daa, daa, daa!" came the gabbing reply from Isaac as Aqua placed him into a high chair so she could feed her baby. Aqua merely giggled at her child, knowing his was rather impatient. Moving to the refrigerator that had all of baby food, Aqua looked over the supplies carefully before grabbing a small jar of apples mixed with bananas. Aqua made her own food, which meant she had taken the time slice and dice the fruits before blending it together. Aqua turned to Isaac, going, "Who's my hungry baby? Mommy's got apples and bananas today!"<p>

Isaac responded, while chewing on his fist some, with a smile and a laugh, chaining together, "Mamamamama!" Aqua could only laugh at her baby, grabbing a spoon with a rubber coated head, walking over to the kitchen table and popping the jar open. Isaac stared eagerly at the jaw, reaching for it, despite being much too far away from the 'goods.' So, he reached for Aqua's breasts instead, making Aqua go, "Isaac, we're eating real food today. Mommy's breasts are…sore right now."

Getting a spoonful of food, Aqua began to spoon feed her child, going at a slow speed. But even with that and the bluenette's efforts, Aqua found her child to be a mess quickly, food on his hands and all around his mouth and chin. Aqua shook her head in amusement as she smiled. She missed this so much.

"Oh, you're a mess already. Messy baby! Mommy loves you, you messy little boy," Aqua said with a smile, making Isaac squeal in delight before Aqua sent another spoonful of food to her son. However, due to experimentation and accident, Isaac managed to grab the food and the splatter it all over Aqua's neck. She squeaked a bit in surprise, standing up suddenly before Isaac laughed merrily at her reaction.

Isaac's reaction was joined with a much deeper, amused laugh as Terra strolled into the kitchen, catching the hind end of that action from his son. Aqua looked at him and then pouted childishly, sticking her lower lip out at Terra and going, "Hey! That's not very nice, you meanie…you shouldn't laugh at your wife like that."

This time, Terra had a response to her and would win this little engagement of wits. "Now, now, don't be so dramatic, Aqua. Isaac's just trying throw painting, the newest form of art!" Terra replied in a teasing manner as he smirked, making Aqua huff slightly, with Isaac giggling at his mother and father. Aqua admitted defeat, not replying, but instead laughing joyously.

"Well, if that's what Isaac wants to do, I don't mind…" the Final Harbinger stated as she smiled at her husband, before she coated her finger tips in some of the food on her neck and then smeared it all over Terra's face. Terra squawked indignantly, swing at the offending hand as both Aqua and Isaac laughed at his reaction. "And if you can't beat them, join them!"

"Oh, har, har, cute! I'll get you for this; my payback will be hundredfold!" Terra retorted playfully to his wife, making her smirk playfully at him. This was much better; this was how they used to be and how both of them wanted life to be. They didn't need all the stress and all the pain, but they would deal with it.

They would grow and conquer.

Because Aqua and Terra never gave up on anything, not others or one another.

It was just meant to be. What God had joined, men nor Harbinger could ever divide.

* * *

><p><strong>Well! That was my lemon chapter, plus some cuteness to balance all the drama. I hope everyone enjoys the chapter! Feel free to review and comment as you'd like and PM for any questions. Thank you all for your continued loyalty to this fanfiction!<strong>


	8. Chapter 7: Becoming Legends

**CHAPTER SEVEN: BECOMING LEGENDS**

If a person looked around, even in dark times, they could always find things to be thankful for. Small miracles that people can take solace in, that make people smile, even if just for a short while. While this wasn't a particularly dark time, times where confusing, tough, and change was thick in the wind. Everyone within the castle at Land of Departure knew it, especially Magnild. She had come here, having neither high expectations nor low ones. She had come to this place, not having a clue what to expect or feel.

But at least she _could_ say one thing. This place was not boring, not even in the slightest. Not counting the obvious tension in the air, her current company, Stephen Black, was keeping her thoroughly entertained. While she could sense there was something more to the man, she decided now was not the time to be digging. Stephen had taken her from the kitchen back out to the training area, while talking to her. When she had asked why not give her a tour, he admitted that it wasn't his place, nor was he overly familiar with the castle proper.

"Oh, so I take it you have been here very long?" Magnild asked after being enlightened to the fact that Stephen didn't know the castle layout too terribly well. Stephen looked at her curiously before he replied, "No, I'm not. I've been here two weeks at most. This is like…a new duty station to me."

"I see. Makes a lot of sense now; you've been a Harbinger longer than Aqua, but you didn't know this castle. Are their multiple Harbingers outside of you and Aqua?" the woman asked, her curiosity and desire for knowledge making her ask one question after another. It certainly was beneficial: it passed the time and further educated Magnild. Stephen didn't have any issues answering her questions.

"Normally, there's four of us, but until Aqua finds and makes official the replacements for the other positions, there's only two of us," Stephen replied to the woman as Magnild listened to him, taking in any information he gave her. She was clearly quite eager to learn.

"I see. So…why just four? Wouldn't it be easier to have more?" Magnild questioned to the ancient being. She was a woman of efficiency; to her, it would be easier and more effective to have multiple Harbingers. At the very least, it would take the strain off of the Core Four, as she dubbed the four main Harbingers. But before she said anything or could carry her train of thought farther, Stephen spoke once again.

"Because there can only be four. To be a Harbinger, you have to possess a tremendous amount of power to begin to, far more than a normal mortal being can have. Such people are rare and such people are the only ones that can survive a Harbinger Ceremony. Unlike a Keyblade Ceremony, a Harbinger Ceremony will kill those too weak," Stephen stated as he remembered some of the past choices for Harbingers who had a lot of promise, but where no longer with them due to the Ceremony killing them. "And we can't make something like Bahamut into a Harbinger, because he's a Summon and a different sort of being all together. Gods and Goddess cannot become Harbingers, as they are already doing a task. And finally, you have to have a strong bond to the respective title you will be getting: light to light, darkness to darkness, and nothingness to nothingness." There was a pause from Stephen Black as he collected his thoughts. Magnild, for the most part, was entranced by the facts he was divulging to her, with a childish, starry eyed expression not entirely expected to be on the face of such a serious looking woman. Stephen, after his pause, continued.

"The Final Harbinger must also be far, far, far stronger than the rest of us. As it stands, I cannot even fathom the full strength that Aqua has. It's safe to say, other than the Absolute Being, Aqua is the strongest being in the universe."

Magnild perked at the name Absolute Being, as well as drank in the fact that Aqua, the pretty little bluenette, was beyond terrifyingly powerful. It seemed hard to accept; Aqua didn't fit the bill of the universe's mightiest being. She was sweet looking, caring, and motherly, despite that fiery temper and personality she had. Such a person just didn't fit the bill for such unfathomable levels of power.

But Magnild wanted to know about this Absolute Being; who or what the hell was it? She had never heard of them before; this she was pretty sure. And Absolute Being sounded like the creator of everything. Could that be who it was? Or maybe just another counterpart to the Harbingers? Before Magnild could ask anything about this mysterious Absolute Being, the voice of Aqua and Terra interrupted her train of thought, grabbing both her and Stephen's attention.

"_Terrrrrrra!"_ Aqua whined childishly as both her and her husband came through the doors that led to the kitchen, Terra smirking as Aqua pouted at him. In Terra's left hand was a good sized serving of succulent, plump strawberries; currently, the right hand was occupied pushing back Aqua as she tried to reach the bowl Terra was lording over her head. Magnild was once again struck by the fact the universe's strongest being was so _playful_ at times. Something about this woman who didn't lord her overwhelming power over others made Magnild all the more confident in her choice to follow Aqua.

"Give me back my strawberries! I didn't make those for both of us and you already had your bowl of orange slices!" Aqua continued as both Stephen and Magnild watched the humorous 'battle' between the bluenette and brunette. Terra only seemed to smile more and replied, "Aqua honey, this is your third bowl! Don't think you've had enough?"

"…_nu,"_ came the rather cute reply from Aqua as she flushed a red color and nibbled at her lower lip. "I'm hungry! You're abusive by keeping my food from me. You abusive, mean, no-good husband of mine!" Aqua said in a playful manner, making Terra laugh good naturedly at his wife. Realizing she wasn't making any headway with the pouting method, Aqua reached up to Terra's lower right ribs with her left hand and pressed into them, moving her fingers back and forth. The results were comical, to say the least: Terra's eyes went wide and he began to laugh, losing his grip on both Aqua and the bowl, letting go of Aqua and dropping the dish of strawberries. Aqua had the bowl in her hand instantly, having not lost any of the succulent fruit from terra dropping them. Moving away from her husband, Aqua grabbed one large fruit and chomped into it happily, shivering with delight.

Looking back at Terra, she saw the man look at her with a dejected, annoyed look as he grumbled, "What the hell!? That's playing really, really dirty Aqua. I never tickle you…" The Final Harbinger wasn't going to have any of this, however; Aqua's right eyebrow arched and she replied teasingly, "Terra, it's not nice to lie, especially in front of your wife! How do you think you stole that which is rightfully mine?"

That ended the conversation right there, Terra frowning as it was Aqua's turn to smirk at him. But he couldn't say mad at her forever, not when she tilted her head _that_ way and smiled so cutely _just_ at the right time. He smiled back at her before he turned his attention to Stephen and Magnild as they moved closer to the pair as they came up from behind them. He noted this verbally to Aqua, going, "Seems like our long term guests are here."

Turning around as she munched as the sweet, fresh fruits, Aqua smiled at them kindly, her excitement dying down as the more motherly side of the Final Harbinger took over. Swallowing the food in her mouth, Aqua cleared her throat before she said, "Stephen, Magnild. We were just going to go look for you. I think it's time we had a long conversation…"

"Pay tell, bluebell, what will the topic of this conversation be?" Magnild asked as her interest was grabbed by Aqua completely now. The tone present in the Final Harbinger's meant this was something big, something huge. Magnild didn't want to miss a moment of it. Aqua looked at Magnild with some amusement before glancing to Stephen Black, who was quiet once again. After observing them both a sufficient amount of time, Aqua finally spoke.

"We have to do a Harbinger Ceremony. And then we need to talk about what we can do to make our own story," Aqua said to everyone around her, getting various reactions from everyone. Stephen smiled at the Final Harbinger, while Magnild's eyes widened with the mirth of amusement. But Terra's reaction was one of pride for his wife. He responded to the bluenette's calling, going, "We're going to change the image, the legend, of what we're going to become. I believe in Aqua; I know we can do this."

Looking to Terra for a moment, Aqua's eyes met Terra's, the orbs of both lovers locking for a moment. During the brief passing of time, they shared a moment of trust, understanding, and love that couldn't be put into words easily. Feeling a significant confidence boost coming to her, Aqua returned her attention to Magnild and Stephen as she confidently said, "The story of the Harbinger's of the past ended on a note of pain, misery, destruction, and death. We're not going to make the mistakes of the past. We can't do that; too many people died for us to just not think about what we will do, who we are, and what we will become. My friends suffered so much before this day…." Aqua's voice trailed off as several memories passed through her mind. None of them where good.

Aqua could see Riku's broken body, the tears on Kairi's face when they felt Riku die. She could see all her friends, bleeding, covered in wounds. She could remember, vividly, Galuf's dying moments, the sound of his voice as it cracked from overwhelming emotion. But most of all, she relived, every time she closed her eyes, the moments of Ven's death. He screamed her name a final time and she had failed her sweet little brother. She begged Johann not to kill Ventus because she unable to move. She never, ever wanted to feel so utterly powerless again.

Closing her eyes, Aqua, with firm conviction, said, "I will never allow anyone else who is innocent die again." Terra, when he heard those words, called out Aqua's name softly, "Aqua…" But she never stopped, continuing her speech of sorts. Opening her eyes, there was a gleam of unyielding determination there for all present to see. "I will _never_ allow us, as Harbingers, to do the horrible things that last Harbingers did. Today is the beginning of a day to change the road. We will be the faces of peace; the defending warriors of that peace."

"As a certain man once said, 'Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything,'" Magnild remarked to Aqua, prompting the bluenette to look at their new arrival and nod in approval. "But I feel we're in for a long struggle ahead, ain't we?"

Terra had an answer to that. He was not going to sit back and be inactive. He was going to take an active role here; the mistakes of the past would not be repeated, no matter how hard this struggle was. "If there is no struggle, there is no progress," Terra stated with conviction, walking closer to Aqua and placed his right hand on her should, squeezing slightly. "And we're going to not give up on Aqua, because she ain't gonna give up on us. She's stubborn that way."

Aqua pursed her lips and giggled slightly. She would let that one slide, as she knew he was right. She was exceedingly stubborn, but she also knew that Terra was just as pigheaded as she was. Maybe that's one of the reasons they fell for one another? There where so many reasons that Terra still made her heart flutter. That dashing grin, that playful glint in his eyes, the witty remarks…

However, Stephen's voice caught her attention as he spoke. What he was saying was really grab her attention, making her look at him, followed by Terra and Magnild afterwards. "I've been listening to this for a bit, but I have something I'd like to say." Stephen paused to make sure that everyone was paying attention to him. Once he was certain he had an audience, he continued. "One, I agree with Aqua. We have an image to change. But two…I have something on my mind. Something I have been thinking about lately, but was not sure how to say."

Taking in a slow breath and letting it out, Stephen made a confession of sort. Or maybe an admission of guilt? It could even be a combination of both, but he spoke none the less. Stephen looked to Terra and Aqua as he spoke, going, "I wanted to say that I am sorry for all of this shit. That I am sorry that I was too weak to stop Johann from ruining your lives, Terra and Aqua; that I couldn't prevent him from killing your friends because I was spineless when it came to him. And since this _is _a day of something new, I want to prove I am not some spineless shithead of a weakling. Whatever plan we create, I will ask questions and voice myself. If we start going astray, I will fight forever and not become a coward again! And if I fail, you better make damn sure you kill me."

Speechless. Terra and Aqua were completely speechless to what they had heard from the Light Harbinger. Aqua blinked a few times, shifting from one foot to another uncomfortably because she didn't want to speak and voice some much darker inner feelings. Dark Aqua spoke, however, going, _'Darlin', he's sincere. I don't wanna hold a grudge much. Caution…yeah…but we gotta give 'em a chance. Please?'_

'_I'm willing to give him a chance. But that doesn't change how uncomfortable I feel right now…'_ Aqua thought as she looked at Terra and Magnild to gauge their respective reactions. Her eyes landed on Magnild's form first. The woman seemed rather shocked about Stephen's admission, blinking a few times before she said, in a neutral tone, "That is some very deep running feelings there. Zu viel verdammt Informationen stehen für einen Tag…"

Terra was also uncomfortable, but for other reasons. Maybe Stephen could have picked a better time to talk about this, but it was better to say it sometime than never at all. He was still had his reservations about all of this, but he couldn't let these feelings hold him back. Terra made the choice to speak on the behalf of his wife and many others right now.

"Stephen, we'll give you that chance. You admit fully your faults, that you were weak when the times demanded action and strength. Both me and Aqua have felt what you are feeling, especially myself. I know the overwhelming feeling of failure…" Terra began before he paused for just a moment. Those feelings still lingered in his heart even to this day. "But I won't let those hold me back and you better not either. We're going to do whatever it takes to make the universe a better place."

Stephen, letting out a cough that served to cover for a sob, wiped the tears from his eyes and gathered the strength to speak, saying, "Y-Yeah. Whatever it takes to make a better place; I can dig that." Stephen looked to Aqua, who blinked a few times and looked away. He saw, for a moment, that she felt uncertain and nervous about something. But what? What was Aqua afraid off? She seemed to worry about her power overwhelming her sense of reasoning; a totally reasonable thing to worry about. But there was other things that were on her mind.

Granted, he was just as nervous about failing all over again and allowing this woman, who had been through so much as it was, to snap, lose her mind, and become a monster that only brought misery and ruination to all. He didn't want anyone, himself include, to become the puppet to an Aqua gone rogue. He knew Terra no doubt felt the same way; so, between the two of them and all of Aqua's friends, surely, she'd never tumble down to the same level of insanity Johann had hit once he was at rock bottom.

Aqua cleared her throat, getting everyone's attention before she said, "I think we're all willing and ready to make the universe experience the peace it really deserves. It starts with a Harbinger Ceremony and then we're going to go out and help rebuild the worlds damaged by Harbinger's past actions. We're going to not only do that, but help planets in general. When they are on hard times, we'll be there to help them through. When they need our guidance and ask, we'll be there. And when we have to fight, we will fight."

Magnild smiled widely as she said, "I'm really quite impressed with you, Aqua. Although we just meet, I get the sense you want to help everyone for all the right reasons." Aqua, upon hearing this, blushed slightly, embarrassed as well as proud of being told that by a total strange. But Magnild had a lot more to say.

"Terra, you might have been an ass to me when we first meet, but I can forgive you. I see you're under a lot of stress and also have a lot to prove. So, apology you may never give me accepted, du hurensohn," Magnild said to Terra, who nodded and smiled some. Aqua, understanding Magnild's German, frowned and said, "Sehen Sie es. Ich weiß was du sagst."

"…Verdammte Scheiße!" Mgnild muttered under her breath as Terra looked at Aqua in a slight incredulous manner, asking, "Latin and German? You know them _both?"_

"Yes, I do. I'm sorry, I value a good education, Commander Stone," Aqua replied with a playful smirk, making Terra frown and slump his shoulders some. Was he never going to escape the rock jokes?

Magnild continued to speak after a moment past, looking at Stephen and stating, "And you. While you've got the right ideas, you just need to make sure you keep your balls. Don't become a big pussy again." That made Aqua's eyes narrow a bit; she was getting tired of the foulness of people's mouths lately!

Stephen cringed slightly at this and said, "You're brutal. Wounded my heart, you did."

"Oh, I see you're va—" Magnild began before Aqua quickly cut her off, going, "Ah, ah, ah! Don't even _finish _that sentence! That's enough with the language! I'm going to start washing mouths out with soap at this rate!" Aqua's hands where placed on her hips as she scolded Magnild light a naughty child.

There were no protests from anyone after that threat. Honestly, who wanted to taste soap? Aqua, seeing she had effectively silenced everyone, said, "We have a Ceremony to do. I'll do them one at a time, since I'm new at this and would rather air on the side of caution." Looking to Terra, Aqua said, "Terra…shall we?" The Final Harbinger offered her hand to Terra, who smiled and gladly took it.

"Let's do this, Aqua. I love and trust you," Terra said to her as she pulled along, away from everyone else. Aqua nodded at this, replying, "I love you, Terra…" But Terra missed the apprehension in her voice, the worry in her eyes, as she was not facing him.

Stephen and Magnild watched as the two departed once again. Stephen seemed a bit nervous and worried; an expression in which the Light Harbinger wore plainly. It was something that was no lost on Magnild. Once Terra and Aqua where gone, Magnild asked the one thing that was currently dancing in her mind to the forefront of her thoughts.

"You think either of us are going to survive the process?"

Stephen, jolted slightly, looked at Magnild. He was silent for a moment as he regarded the words that had come from this strange woman's mouth. She didn't seem worried, concerned, or afraid. Stephen then asked, "If I said I was worried, what would you do?"

"Well!" Magnild said as she turned to look in the direction of where Aqua and Terra had gone. An amused smirked came to her face as she crossed her arms, speaking as she stared forward, "I'd tell you that fate is cruel, but if we are gonna survive, we will. If we don't, we don't. I have nothing to go back to anyways, so if I die, I won't be missed by anyone at 'home.'"

Stephen's eyes widened at the nature of Magnild, prompting to go, "You know, I had pegged you as insane, but _you_ just proved to me that you are certifiably insane." She was completely at ease with what could possibly happen? She must not fear death at all. Or maybe, as he said, she was insane.

Her reply silenced him totally. She looked back at him, a wide smirk coming to her face as her eyes seemed to twinkle with glee. "Do I look like someone who cares what God thinks?"

Stephen, while his mouth dropped in complete shock, could only find himself admiring this incredibly gutsy woman.

* * *

><p>Aqua had lead Terra to one of the library of the Castle; Terra could feel the growing tension in the air. Ever since he and Aqua had left Stephen and Magnild, Terra couldn't help to feel a pit of worry growing in his gut. Aqua had been dead silent, but that wasn't what had started the worry: it was the steel grip on his hand. The bluenette had Terra's hand in vice grip, not wanting to let go. Terra hadn't made any attempts to remove his hand, but he had hunch that any efforts on his end would only meet dismal failure. It was also good he had such a high threshold for pain; anyone would might be squirming on the floor from the pressure Aqua's grip was exerting on Terra's hand.<p>

Aqua was dead serious about doing this in a place she could focus and be alone. As they passed by several rows of books, Terra finally spoke, asking his wife, "Aqua…are you alright?"

Aqua finally came to a sudden halt in the part of the library he remembered from long ago. While he bumped into Aqua's back and behind, Terra knew this place symbolized the start of his and Aqua's friendship. It was the corner of the library where, after he had hurt Aqua's feelings after her arrival at Land of Departure, he had apologized to her and managed to get her to start opening up to him, albeit slowly. Why had they come here was very apparent to Terra. It was crystal clear.

This place held significance to him and Aqua. Why not conduct yet another very critical junction in their relationship here?

"Terra…" Aqua said in a soft, nearly inaudible whisper that seemed to boom through the silent room. Aqua slowly let go of Terra, like just giving him his hand freedom of her grip was causing her terrible pain. Her heart was pounding in her chest as she turned to Terra slowly. The expression on her face was unreadable to Terra, but he could sense the cold waves of fear and worry rolling off of Aqua, coming at him like sheets of rain in a mighty storm. "Are you ready? This ceremony could kill you. This is your last chance to back out…"

She hadn't told him this was dangerous enough that he might met his end here, but then again, he had been through so many life and death situations that he really wasn't taken off-guard by the severity of the situation. Terra was quick with his response, shaking his head before he said firmly, "Absolutely not. I'm not running away from this. I promised you. Even if you're scared I might die"

Aqua, cringing slightly, realized there was no going back. Terra was going to follow through with this. She took in a deep breath as Terra watched her, observing every movement of his wife. After what felt like an eternity—but was likely only a thirty seconds at most—Aqua moved back a few steps, her armored boots clicking lightly against the dark wooden floors. The poor lighting of the library only served to amplify at atmosphere of the situation presented to both Terra and the Final Harbinger.

Leveling her hand out and in the direction of Terra, a small obsidian orb of crackling energy formed before Aqua's palm. The pure level of the darkness was so great that it actually made everything pitch black, making it impossible for even Aqua to see anything around her. This was true darkness, much like many sections of the Realm of Darkness. And despite how steeled Terra was for the Ceremony, the chilling authority of that orange sized orb sent a wave of ice rushing down Terra's spine. Only Aqua's voice let him know he wasn't _in_ the Realm of Darkness.

"I, the Final Harbinger, deem you worthy of undergoing this Ceremony. Survive this Ceremony and you will be the new Darkness Harbinger. May your strength of character and heart carry you through this trial, Terra."

And with that, Terra felt the darkness impact his chest and sink into his body. His vision returned, allowing him to see his surroundings once again. He waited for a few seconds; nothing happened. Looking to Aqua and seeing that her expression had not really changed, Terra opened his mouth to speak, to reassure his wife that he was just fine.

But that's when the greatest agony Terra had ever felt in his existence erupted through his body, starting from his chest and crashing over every nerve ending like a tidal wave pounding the shore. Terra's eyes went wide as the explosions of pain torn apart his being, making him howl in bloody murder. He arched his back and a plume of blood erupted from his mouth, followed by his eyes rolling up into the black of his head as he convulsed several times. Then, his body went limp and he crumpled to the floor with a bang, head bouncing off of the floor before Terra became motionless.

Aqua's reaction was quick to morph from shock at Terra's scream and pain to absolute horror as soul numbing terror, much like she felt when Johann's Lingering Will was attacking her, took control. Terra _could_ be dead; no, he couldn't be! Dark Aqua was in full panic mode as she said, _'Terra-Bear! No! Nononono! He's gotta be ok, he's gotta! We can't lose 'em!'_ Aqua was next to him the moment he toppled face down to the floor, rapidly rolling him onto his back and cradling the brunette. She was already crying as she screamed, like her voice would bring him back.

"_**TERRA!"**_ Aqua shrieked, her voice cracking and breaking from emotional overload. Her entire body was cold, shaking, and eyes dilated as Terra didn't reply or even move. He didn't look like he was breathing. She leaned close, ear over his mouth as she listened for breathing, a tasking proving extremely difficult with her thunderous heartbeat pounding in her ears. She heard nothing, quickly feeling for a pulse. Her left index and middle finger went to Terra's wrist and pressed. Much to her mounting horror, she felt _nothing._ Her power spiked rapidly, causing the castle to begin to shake from the sheer volume of rising magical power. The floor cracked as wood split from the pressure of magical power from Aqua.

"No…no, this isn't happening. This can't be…Terra, please, wake up! I can't live without you; I can't raise our son alone! Damn it, you have to wake up!" Aqua begged in desperation, hoping that her voice would bring him back. Once again, Terra didn't move. She stared at the seemingly lifeless body before her as a surge of a new feeling—guilt—tore into her heart. Tears began to fall from her cheeks and onto Terra's pale face, splattering against cold skin.

"Terra…please…I love you. We're supposed to be together…forever," Aqua hoarsely said as she leaned down and held him, hugging Terra's form and placing a kiss on his lips. She pulled away as she cried, hiccups and pain filled sobs wracking her body, making her convulse involuntarily. Her eyes never left Terra's body as she begged to whatever God would listen, praying that this was a part of the Ceremony and Terra would pull through. _'Please…don't take Terra. Don't take my light, my love, my happiness…'_ she thought in an endless loop.

Silence for a good minute. This crushing silence, only interrupted by Aqua's occasional sobs and pleas, seemed to be Terra's funeral. When nothing happened, Aqua felt like she was going to go off the deep end.

Until Terra's eyes snapped up and he sat up with a grasp of breath, letting out a string of unsavory, foul words. Aqua's eyes widened as Terra gasped for breath, trying to regain his bearing and surroundings. He was alive! He was ok; those foul words only served to make it a reality that her precious lover was completely fine. Aqua, as relief, happiness, and crushing joy took away all the negative feelings swirling in her heart, squealed in delight, laughing insanely as she grabbed Terra and crushed him with a hug.

Terra, while still confused and dizzy, accepted the hug as a sign that everything was going to be just fine.

* * *

><p><strong>Well, I am very sorry it took SO long to post my chapter! I needed to flesh it out and make sure it was good. Thank you being so patient!<strong>


	9. Chapter 8: Discipline

**CHAPTER EIGHT: DISCIPLINE**

_**Three Days After The Harbinger Ceremonies…**_

Today, the Castle at Land of Departure was alive with the sounds of training. It had been a bit since any training had been done at the castle, but the Harbingers—all four of them—knew there was no time to slack off. While Magnild was tough, she was also rough. While Aqua elected to cultivate the woman and help unlock her talent, Terra and Stephen teamed up as partners in order to practice and strengthen themselves. While offers to train had been extended to Sora and Kairi, as well as King Mickey, Donald, and Goofy, they had all be turned down. Although Aqua too the rejections in stride, she felt a painful twinge in her heart none the less.

Regardless, the Harbingers and Keyblade bearers had to train, to sharpen themselves, to gain new power and knowledge. None of them knew if or when the next big threat might come, but none of fighters wanted to be caught flatfooted and too weak to fight. That was something lingering in the minds of Aqua and Terra in particular. After all, the things that had happened in their lives were partly because they were weak and blind to what was going on. They had been naïve and foolish. Aqua, however, was mortified she would lack the controlled needed in combat and hurt her allies. It was something she tried not to voice in front of everyone, however.

So, while she helped Magnild, Terra and Stephen once again engaged in combat. This time, it was not life or death, but it did nothing to lessen the sheer determination to win on either side, however. It seemed like both of Terra and Stephen had a highly competitive side. The battle cries, taunts of each respective combatant, and song of battle were a testimony to this.

Terra's arms burned as he swung his weapon at his opponent, Ends of the Earth smashed into the defenses of Stephen Black, the man skillfully deflecting Terra's fearsome blows. Stephen's arms ached from the repeated blows Terra was landing on them, pain clearly on his face despite the aura of holy energy around his forearms. A sheen of sweat could be seen on both foreheads and brows of Terra and Stephen as Terra slowly drove Stephen back, the teeth of Ends of the Earth hitting Holy magic coated hands, each ringing blow sending dying embers of white energy spraying off into the air. Pants and gasps of breath could be heard, acting like the fuel for the warriors, fresh oxygen entering their burning lungs and reinvigorating them. Swift footwork by either opponent kept their weight distributed perfectly and stances strong, since neither side wanted to be taken off of their feet.

Stephen rolled forward and behind Terra as he performed a double handed downward swing, deftly avoiding the strong handed blow. Terra couldn't react fast enough to withdraw from his attack and defend himself, receiving a rather painful Holy empowered heel kick to his lower back, which hit with enough force to throw him forward onto his face and chest with a bang. The ground fractured under the impact, making Terra take in as sharp, fuzzy black dots invading his vision. That had hurt, a lot, and Terra could feel the Holy magic sending waves of hot agony up his spine. _'I'm…weak to Holy…damn it! Now he can hurt me a lot better than before…!'_ Terra thought as he got to all fours quickly, but pain made his legs buckle out.

The brunette was quick to recognize the danger he was in when he heard what sounded like flames crackling behind him before he rolled away with Keyblade in hand to his left. He was wise to do so, as an axe kick employed with raging flames embedded itself into the ground, sending hunks of tough, magical stone into the air before gravity dragged it back down, stone clicking and clattering against the ground.

Terra unleashed a counter attack while he rolled, firing an Outflow to the Dark orb at Stephen, who snapped his left arm up to prevent the dangerous, darkness based attack from striking the left side of his body, particularly the ribcage. The silver and purple orb impacted Stephen's forearm with a resounding blast, which flung him back, ringed with acidic smoke and his right forearm blackened from darkness based burns. Stephen, like Terra before him, nearly buckled from the nerve destroying, powerful attack, but he remained on his feet, fighting through the pain. He cringed at the repeated use of his weakness, but Terra was just as weak to his Holy based attacks, allowing the man to more regularly return the favor. Quickly, he started a counterattack, not wanting to give Terra even a moment of rest, despite his new found regenerating power. Just because he could regenerate didn't mean he could feel fatigue.

Terra was quickly under siege as Stephen lunged back at him with a mighty cry, fists pounding away at Terra's dogged defense, thunderous shockwaves echoing through the huge room as the Light Harbinger forced back the new Darkness Harbinger, the ground cracking under the ripples of energy from the battle. Terra gritted his teeth as Stephen pushed him back down gaining ground with every punch and occasional kick. Terra couldn't get any attacks in edge wise, but he was now gambling he defense would out longer than Stephen's powerful blows; after all, the attacker always exhausted themselves. Terra's defense slipped, however, leading to a jarringly painful blow to the throat, making him gag and sputter, spit flying from his mouth as Terra coughed and hacked. Stephen's punch had collapsed his wind pipe on itself!

A spinning heel kick to Terra's chest sent the man flying through the air like a rocket on an upward arch, forcing Terra, disorientate as he was, to quickly right himself in midair. He coughed hard, feeling like he was nearly going to vomit from those last two blows. Both of them had struck hard, but thankfully they weren't empowered with Holy magic. But that didn't mean they didn't hurt like hell!

"Come on, you can't be tired yet! We're just warming up!" Stephen taunted as he observed Terra from as the brunette's coughing fit came to an end. Terra, heading the blatant taunt, replied with a steely glare before retorting, "You're the one stalling for time!" Stephen merely chuckled at Terra, crouching down and preparing to engage in combat once again. With a spring and a boom, Stephen launched himself into the air.

Terra quickly rushed back down at Stephen as the Light Harbinger flew up at him, both of the warriors snarling as they charged head long into one another. They meet with a howl, with swirling auras of darkness and light mingling together is a dazzling display of hues and heat.

* * *

><p>Outside of the castle, in the courtyard where Terra and Eraqus had fought, Aqua was doing her best to explain how to detect other people without hearing, seeing, or smelling them. It was the fine art of detect one's power, via their magical energy or spiritual prowess. While Aqua had simply learned the skill through a combination of trial, error, and knowledge gained from her initial initiation as the Final Harbinger, the bluenette had a strong grasp on how to teach the ability to another person; so long as they had the latent talent, anyone could learn this ability.<p>

But that didn't mean the process would be free of humorous moments, especially with the new Nothingness Harbinger. Aqua sighed as she simply stared at the woman who seemed to be puzzled. But the smile on Aqua's face showed she was enjoying herself, being back in the saddle with something she was familiar with: teaching people and helping others. After a moment to gather her wits, Aqua said, "Magnild, this ability doesn't detect power levels."

But the German woman wasn't about to accept that. "But it does! It's detecting someone's power! I mean, what happens when you need to measure the power of someone? Like, what if their power level is over nine thousand?" Magnild replied to Aqua as she frowned and crossed her arms over her chest. She was trying to make sense of this magical ability, which was really quite odd for a woman with the ability to control, manipulate, and mold almost any metal or object made of metal. "Because if I'm only four thousand and they're over nine thousand, I'd say I'd be pretty fucked right in the down under."

Aqua was quick to scold Magnild once again with a frown before she walked over and grabbed the larger woman's right ear painfully. She wanted to talk with a foul mouth? That wasn't fine and she was about to get the same treatment as Terra! Magnild let out a few pained cries at the offending, pinching thumb and index finger of Aqua's left hand as they latched onto her earlobe before she was yanked down so Aqua could say into her ear, "Stop. It. With. The. Foul. Language!" Eeah word was punctuated by yanks from the Final Harbinger, making Magnild whine and pout at the rough tugs.

"Ok, ok, ok! Letgoletgoletgo! You're gonna tear my ear off!"

Letting go of the poor woman's now throbbing ear, Aqua watched as Magnild rubbed her earlobe tenderly wincing from the light application of strength of the girl. This bluenette was freakishly strong! Aqua, while waiting for Magnild to fully recover, thought, _'I swear…she's like a female Terra. Foul mouthed and very opinionated. But could it kill people to temper their mouths? We have a baby around that will mimic everyone's words…'_

'_Oh, how cute darlin', worrin' about itty bitty Isaac~ You're such a cute mommy! Although you're still guilty for foul words…~'_ came the sing song voice of Dark Aqua as she teased Aqua on the topic of foul words. After all, there had been plenty of times where Aqua had been less than cordial with someone.

Aqua promptly replied, _'Oh no, don't you even get started!'_ She knew who her darker side just loved to get her flustered and all wound up. But Aqua wasn't going to allow it this time. The sternness in her voice was enough to let Dark Aqua know she meant business. She grumbled and whined a bit, but eventually she caved in to her mother figure, remarking, _'Sheesh, yer less fun than that time I nearly murdered Xehanort.'_

'_How was that not fun…?'_

'_**You**__ didn't hafta put up with old man smell!'_

Aqua paused a bit at that point before she said out loud with a chuckle, "Alright, point taken." She had been locked in a nightmare with her own heart, leaving it up to Dark Aqua to pummel Xehanort into the dirt. Magnild, having recovered a bit before Aqua and Dark Aqua's conversation stated, noticed how Aqua's eyes seemed to glass over, like she was lost in her own world. When the bluenette spoke, Magnild wondered if she was communicating with someone over telepathy. Electing to not question what her new master was doing, Magnild grabbed Aqua's attention by clearing her throat. The woman blinked a few times before going, "Oh. My apologies. Are you ready to resume training?"

Magnild merely nodded in response.

"Alright…I need you to form a small ball of metal with you powers. Have it float in front of you, if you can," Aqua said as she got back into the mentality of training. Magnild arched the eye brow over her mechanical eye before she did as she was told. Holding on her left arm, palm down at the ground, the ground budged slightly before a ball of tungsten came out of the ground, formed into a volleyball sized orb that floated up to chest level on Magnild. Once this was done, Aqua began to explain what the German woman needed to do.

"To detect others at all, you need to first know your own power. If you can't understand your own natural self, how can you even hope to understand others?" Aqua explained as she gesturing to the orb of tungsten and then to Magnild. She knew this was the easiest and best way to go about this. Magnild, with an expression of understanding, began to focus on the orb floating in front of her. Meanwhile, Aqua continued to coach Magnild while the woman zeroed in on the tungsten ball.

"Think about yourself. Think about who you are, deep down inside. That will lean insight to how your strength flows. It will tell you how the waves of your power flow as you command it…"

Magnild listened to the bluenette's words and took them to heart. She thought about this, pondering, _'Think about myself. I enjoy free spirit, but I'm detailed in my efforts. I've understood pain and felt loss. I am relentless in nature…'_ The more that Magnild thought about it, the more she began to realize how her energy might move and flux. It took some heavy effort and absolutely concentration, but about fifteen minutes, the blonde felt something radiating from the volleyball sized orb. It was faint, like a ghostly feeling that tickled her nerves and mind. That energy felt organized, but hues of pain could be felt within. There was a hearty amount of will behind it. Magnild was amazed and excited at this point, a smile coming to her face and eyes lighting up, blue and brown coming to life with mirth and happiness.

"Ich…Ich fühle mich etwas!" the blonde haired woman sputtered excitedly in German before she said in English, "I can feel something…there! It's faint. But you're right, bluebell, there's definitely something there."

Aqua, clasping her hands together, was pleased with Magnild's efforts. While having the latent talent already within her, Aqua hadn't expected her to grasp it so quickly and readily. But that didn't mean they were done here; her student needed to learn not only to sense, but stay 'locked on' while keeping situational awareness. She also needed to be taught that this ability was not fool proof in several regards. Aqua still gave credit where credit was due.

"Hey, you're catching on really fast! I'm very proud of you," Aqua said with a grin at her student. Magnild was pleased as well, but knew that this was fair from the extent of their training together. She waited to see what Aqua would do next and what instructions she would issue out. The woman didn't have to wait long in that regard.

"Now, move that orb around and keep focusing on it. Once you learn how to focus on it and can detect it while it's moving at varying speeds, we can then teach you how to focus on moving targets. Eventually, this will lead into multiple targets," Aqua explained to her student, who listened to her instructions and the general plan she had thus far. It seemed like good plan to follow. There was no need to rush the training secessions if they could avoid it. However, Aqua concluded with some dangers and warnings.

"Now, this ability is very handy to have, but not foolproof as you likely guessed."

A curt reply in the form of a sigh came from the blonde before she muttered, "Pretty much. What is the danger?"

"Things that are moving quickly are extremely difficult to track with this method, thus making it useless. If your senses are scrambled, this technique rapidly decreases in effectiveness," Aqua paused for a moment before she recalled one final fact. "And machines can't really be sensed, since they don't generate the required bio-organic field this method senses…"

Nodding in total understanding, Magnild replied, "That makes sense. I'll keep all of that in mind."

"This is just another ability at a warrior's disposal. We can't afford to rely on any one skill, so the better layering we have and the wide range of skills we possess, the better success we can achieve. We can protect ourselves in order to better protect others," Aqua concluded wistfully as her student nodded. Aqua hoped that she was explaining things well enough to the German; it seemed like it at least, considering how quickly she was grasping things.

With no further instructions, the blonde closed her eyes, since she needed to avoid using her eyes for now. Magnild began to practice trying to keep track of the orb of tungsten as she commanded it to move about slowly in random patterns. It was hard to make it unpredictable since she was the one commanding the ball, but she found it surprisingly difficult to actually track the metal projectile with her new-found senses along. Aqua watched with a careful eye, quickly realizing the need for a bit more randomness to the training here.

Once Magnild was good and concentrated on the task set before her, Aqua smiled a bit as she thought, _'This might be premature, but it will teach a lesson…'_ Fully set on her current course, Aqua acted.

The Final Harbinger did two things: first, she used Magnet to yank the tungsten ball down and smash it into the ground, embedding it into the ground all the way to the left of its owner. Secondly, she lunged at Magnild with blinding speed, aiming to strike her with a palm strike to the diaphragm. Both had the desired effects, with Magnild cursing at the sudden loss of control over her own projectile, eyes snapping open before going wide as Aqua's slender form filled her vision. Unable to react to defend herself, Magnild felt the bluenette's palm strike force all the wind out of her lungs, taking the warrior off of her feet and then sending her skidding along the ground painfully, the ground giving out under the sliding form of the Nothingness Harbinger, leaving a shallow, dirty trench in her wake.

After she had come to a stop, the blonde began to sputter and cough heavily, her mind moving a million miles a second as she thought, _'What…what the hell was that? I thought she was going to let me learn at a more leisurely pace!'_ Although Magnild was berating herself for being so trusting, she also was pleased that Aqua had done this to try and keep her on her toes. After slowly recovering from the strong blow as Aqua walked over, Magnild was surprised at the hand then now hand hovering over her, offering her assistance in getting up. Looking up to the blue eyes that sparkled with wistful mirth, the Harbinger of Nothingness blushed in embarrassment.

As the blonde too her hand, Aqua hefted her up onto her feet, allowing the woman to brush herself off. She knew she was going to be sore, both pride wise and physically speaking. Speaking, Aqua explained the reasoning behind her actions, patting Magnild on her shoulder as she said, "See what I mean? Even in training, things can go wrong. Attacks can get misdirected, accidents can come your way, and nature can become bipolar. While you do need to concentrate and learn how to sense, you can't focus so completely that you get tunnel vision."

"I…" The Nothingness Harbinger said before she coughed a few more times, clearing her throat and getting a few lung full of air. Once she was good, she finished with, "I'll keep that in mind next time."

"Did you keep in mind that we're supposed to spar you two on one?"

Aqua nearly jumped at the sound of Terra's voice, but she managed to avoid doing that. Although her heart beat had increased a bit from the slight scare she had received from the brunette. Aqua turned to spot Terra and Stephen, healed up and rested up, walking down the long stairway that lead up to the main entrance of Land of Deaprture's castle. They had changed back into new clothes; due to the fact their combat had once again ruined their clothing. Magical empowered cloths just didn't seem to hold up like they used too.

Placing her right hand on her hip, Aqua grinned at her 'opponents' as Magnild moved off to one of the far walls to continue practice on focusing on her sensing abilities. Yanking the ball of tungsten as she passed by it, Magnild took her position while Aqua summoned her Keyblade in a flash of white light and falling flower pedals. She got into a combat stance and she said, "I didn't forget; how could I?" Aqua honestly found herself looking forward to training with Terra, having longed for those older days. She wanted to feel that nostalgic feeling once again.

Stephen being present didn't lessen Aqua's growing excitement. Although Aqua briefly pondered why she was getting excited; was she becoming a combat junkie or maybe it was something else? Beating back the thoughts that might distract her in combat, Aqua prepared herself to engage both Terra and Stephen at once.

Seeing the Final Harbinger was prepared—no, she was_ itching_—to go, Terra summoned Ends of the Earth with a digital blast of energy, his body flowing with dark energy and might, while Stephen bulked up his muscles as power flowed into them and covered his fists in balls of fire. Smoke curled from the crackling flames while dark energy swirled around Terra's Keyblade as he prepared to fight. Before anyone engaged, Terra asked, "So, we can practice whatever we want, right? Meaning we go all out and not worry about…?"

Aqua, her Keyblade humming with overwhelming power, arched her right eyebrow and then replied, "Yes, we can. This is training after all! We might as well go all out." She wanted them to get creative and start working together as a team. This way, they could better defend the people they promised to help and had an obligation to protect. Once the basic ground rules where set, Aqua attacked first, casting a Thundaga Shot at her opponents as she rushed forward with blinding speed. Stephen and Terra differently, with Stephen darting away to his right from the ball while Terra snapped his weapon up to block it. Gritting his teeth, Terra sent the crackling, sparking yellow orb flying right back at Aqua, certain she was coming right at him.

Or so he thought.

Instead, Aqua appeared to Terra's right after he deflected the Thundaga Shot, knowing he would be totally wide open. As the Thundaga Shot sailed harmlessly through the air, Terra's eyes widened as Aqua, smirking all the while, lunged forward with a Barrier Surge into Terra's unprotected right side. The hit would have been devastating, but Stephen appeared between Terra and Aqua, blocking her with all his might. Flames snapped and crackled over the translucent barrier of Aqua's offensive thrust as Stephen gritted his teeth in his attempt to hold her back. _'Damn it…her strength is insane even now! Being the Final Harbinger has boosted her physical power a lot!'_ Stephen thought as his legs strained against Aqua, while she gritted her own teeth in an attempt to break through.

Thankfully, Aqua's Barrier Surge wore out, making Aqua leap away from the surge of fire coming from Stephen's flame coated hands, but that didn't make Stephen free from danger yet. As she leaped away, Aqua flung her Keyblade at Stephen as he stumbled forward, the spinning weapon covered in ice. The backside of the head of Stormfall crunched against Stephen's head, knocking him face first into the ground with a bang, ground cracking under the impact.

Catching her Keyblade with her right hand, Aqua snapped it in front of her to defend herself from a powerful double handed strike from Terra, the block being successful as sparks flew from her weapon as Ends of the Earth smashed into it hard and fast. The overwhelming hit was enough to drive her back several feet, heels digging into the ground as Aqua let out a breath she had being holding in. Aqua avoided Terra's follow up Meteor spell with a teleport, the flaming rock crashing into the ground where she had been standing moments ago, creating a firing explosion that sent hunks of molten rock everywhere. By this time, Stephen was back on his feet, coughing a bit as blood dripped from his busted lip. Flaming rocks pelted his skin as Magnild now used her Tungsten ball as a shield, morphing it into a wall to protect herself from the debris.

'_Man, Aqua doesn't play around with these fellows!'_ Magnild thought before following that up with, _'But then again, they ain't playing either!'_

It was Terra's turn to feel some pain as Aqua landed behind him, placing her Keyblade in her left hand as she performed a heel kick into Terra's back, making him stagger forward as the heel of Aqua's boot smashed into his kidney, making him gasp in pain. As he staggered, Aqua used her forward momentum from her kick to smash her Keyblade into the back of his head, taking him off his feet and onto all fours as he cried out in pain. Before Aqua could follow up with anymore punishing blows, a Flying Kick from Stephen, empowered with Holy magic, crunched into Aqua's face. She was tossed back like a ragdoll by the resulting explosion of white energy, smoke rolling off her face as she bounced off the ground and then into the air.

As Stephen quickly helped Terra to his feet, Aqua was busy preparing to attack, recovering quickly from the damage she had taken. Burn wounds healed up and skin was returned to its flawless state as Stephen said, "Damn it, she's not even getting phased much here…" He couldn't speak anymore, as a Firaga Burst ended those attempts. Hundreds of baseball sized flaming orbs forced the two Harbingers to dart, roll, duck, and block incoming attacks. The heat from the huge ball for flames the smaller orbs came from was intense. It was like a horde of bees, but these bees happened to be on fire and came from a hive of raging heat and light.

Once Aqua's attack was over and she landed on the ground, she was immediately pressured by twin attackers as Keyblade swings, punches, and kicks came Stephen and Terra, Aqua being pushed back by their combined offensive. Spark flew as Aqua was drove back by their combined offensive, some hits getting through her defense. A flame covered punch struck Aqua's stomach, making her grunt in pain, followed by Ends of the Earth smacking the side of her head hard enough to snap it to the left. Another blow in the form of an upper cut from Terra made Aqua's head snap back and ruby liquid spray from her mouth as her teeth smashed together.

This time, Aqua countered with an Almagest, the white explosion making Terra scream in hellish agony as his elemental weakness burnt him horribly and flung him back. Terra convulsed on the ground in pain, but Stephen absorbed the Holy energy and plowed right through her attack, landing several left and right hooks on the distracted and surprised Final Harbinger. Her face snapped from left to right, blood and spit spraying from her mouth as she felt a sudden surge in panic take over. Aqua's eyes widened and she snapped her left hand forward drilling Stephen with a point blank Shadow Flare, the massive explosion of purple and blue energy sending Stephen back. Limp from the nerve shredding pain, Stephen crashed into the ground next to Terra, cursing up a storm.

Aqua, realizing what she had done, said, "Guys! Are you alright?!" Healing rapidly, she was about to run over to her allies when Terra, healing like she was, came to his feet, spitting up a bit of blood. Aqua cringed at this, but the man merely grinned and said, "I'm good. Hell, this is how training with you ought to be! There's no reason to baby us, Aqua." Stephen was on his feet shortly after what Terra said, with a grin coming from someone who was thoroughly enjoying the fight. Despite both his and Terra's rapidly disheveled, both of them were ready for more.

"And you need to not underestimate our durability!"

Lifting his right arm up, Stephen formed a very thin, but wide disk shaped Holy attack before he flung it at Aqua with all his might. It was spinning rapidly, making a sawing noise as it sliced through the air. Aqua, hearing the buzzing noise of the attack and seeing its general shape, quickly bent backwards with her unnatural flexibility, barely avoiding the extremely dangerous attack. Aqua still recovering when the damn thing came around for another try; scrambling to her feet, Aqua formed a Barrier spell over her body. Much to her shock, the attack cleaved through her protective shield and sliced off her left arm in half, the bladed, spinning attack slicing between her middle and index finger, traveling right up and leaving her screaming in pain as the severed part of her now ruined left arm hit the ground wetly. This was all from Stephen's new Holy Novacula technique. Stephen's Holy based attack faded away after successfully maiming Aqua.

'_**MY arm!**__ He…those…!'_ Aqua thought in a bit of a panic, although she knew she'd recovered. Her power was spiking as she felt fear, the need to defend herself, and anger start to pollute her more rational thinking. She was in a lot of pain as well, even as her arm regenerated. Maybe she had allowed them to take things too far; but what she didn't expect was for Terra to attack right as her Barrier dropped. She certainly didn't expect to see wolf made of purple lava chomp down onto her ruined arm painfully. Aqua flung her ruined left arm about wildly as she tried her damnest to toss the offending, snarling wolf off of her. She could see it start to glow now, getting brighter and brighter rapidly. Dark Aqua screamed as well, warning, _"Darlin', it's gonna-'_

The resulting explosion of Terra's newest move, Hellhounds, flung Aqua off of the courtyard with a scream of surprise, agony, and betrayal. The ground literally melted into bubbling lava from the intense heat of the explosion. As her smoking form disappeared over the edge of the courtyard, Terra, having not perfected his own move, and coming to his sensed and leaving 'combat mode' felt his jaw job before he screamed, "Aqua! _Aqua!"_

What he got was an enraged scream as his wife went completely off the deep end, coupled with a column of white, gold, purple, and blue light the pierced up into the heavens None of them had been paying attention, but the random spikes of power had reached a head as Aqua completely lost control of herself. The sheer force of the erupting column forced Terra to brace himself, but he could barely handle it. Eventually, the column or swirling energy died down as Stage I Aqua floated up into the air.

Dropping her protective shielding, Magnild was completely floored by what she was seeing. Wings. A thrashing tail. Claw-like hands and a power so intense that it made her sick to her stomach; it was impossible for her mind to wrap itself around what it was scream at her. All her instinct howled at her to run away, like a cowardly animal. But she was frozen in place, in her sitting position, shivering like a new born baby in winter's embrace. Unable to handle the explosive release of Aqua's power, Magnild lurched forward and then passed out, her eyes rolling up into the back of her mind.

Terra's eyes widened as he actually took a few steps back from the positively enraged form of Aqua as he hung in the air, panting and shaking uncontrollably. Stephen was also in shock at her reaction, but it might not unexpected either. They might have gone _way_ overboard with this training. He grits his teeth and prepares for the worse, knowing she's about to do something very irrational.

Aqua looked _beyond _enraged. Her lips had curled back into a snarled, her eyes had dilated to pin pricks. Her Keyblade as disappeared, but she doesn't seem to care. Not even in the slightest. She wanted to make Terra hurt for hitting her with such a painful, damaging attack. She saw them as enemies and they needed to be punished for their foolishness. With a scream that echoed through the land, Aqua snapped her left arm up violently as she screamed, _**"JUST WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE!?"**_

Terra barely had time to react as Aqua formed a monstrous Ultima over her head, the attack whining dangerously as it grew to a mile wide and then a mile and half. The glow of the Ultima's light made Terra quickly spurred the brunette into action, making him scream furiously, _**"NO!**_ Aqua, calm down! You can't throw that _at the castle!" _

Stephen, on the other hand, quickly tried to stop the woman from going completely out of her mind. He began to barrage with her a Holy Blitz, but the attacks bounced harmlessly off her crackling aura of power. Stephen's eyes went wide with shock as Aqua basically shrugged off his attacks. They needed to transform right now! Stephen instantly shifted to his True Self, while Terra summoned his Guardian and reached his full power, their auras crackling with mighty power. They had to attempt a joint attack before she flung that planet buster at Land of Departure.

Instead, she compressed the orb down to the size of an volleyball, the glowing ball of light whining so loudly that it made the ground shake like crazy. No one was expecting this as Aqua screamed out, _**"ULTIMA…!"**_ Using her teleporting skills, Aqua appeared before Terra, the spinning, whining orb of energy screaming as Aqua drew her left arm back, eyes wide with a wild insane look. Terra, having been looking up at Aqua, looked down just in time to see Aqua thrust her arm forward.

"_**RIFLE!"**_

Terra felt everything go dark as a silent bright flash took over everything for a moment.


	10. Chapter 9: Crepuscule

**CHAPTER NINE: CREPUSCULE**

Terra was floating in an endless void of white. He was numb, like his nerves had been totally destroyed. He could barely breathe as he drifted lazily in this endless expansion of white. Nothing stood out to Terra as he looked around the area, painfully. He had been here for what felt like days, aimlessly and alone. Further complicating his feelings of loneliness was pain. He was in a constant state of pain, like his body was constantly burning. If it wasn't for Terra's overwhelming willpower, he might have succumbed to the agony.

He knew something had gone wrong during the training with Aqua. She had snapped and attacked with a totally new move. He couldn't remember the results of the attack. All brunette knew was when he had come to, he was in this realm of nothingness. He couldn't move and he couldn't do anything but think.

Terra recalled the vestiges of rage that had darkened the beautiful features of someone he called his wife. Terra could remember the insanity that seemed to grip soft features and turn them into harsh edges that screamed death threats and brought endless destruction.

He could remember his shock and terror before the impact to his chest, followed by the blinding white light that seemed to match this void note for note. He couldn't even recall if he had felt any pain whatsoever; once the light had blinded him that was it.

'_Aqua…why did we push you so hard? We should have been more careful. Myself and Stephen promised to help you learn control, but all we did was make you lose it,'_ he thought with a single tear rolling down his cheek. He felt ashamed of himself, but also angry at how easily Aqua had lost her temper. And he was afraid too.

Had Aqua killed him and everyone else? Had she gone on a bloody rampage? Was Isaac—oh, by Kingdom Hearts, their son!—alright? Was their son safe from danger? And had the planet survived the Ultima Rifle?

Terra, drifting and alone, trapped with his thoughts, could only cry as he begged for freedom from this white nightmare.

* * *

><p>The sound of a vitals machine beeping every few seconds was the only thing that could be heard in the medical wing of the castle. A machine that was telling everyone that someone was in under the watchful eye of technology and a human being. It was a machine monitoring the life signs of Terra. While he was clearly healed of damage, he was still unconscious and there had been massive amount of internal damage that had nearly killed him. The shock had been so great that despite the healing Terra had been placed through, his body just seemed always on the verge of shutting down. He was also wearing a hospital gown, on life support, many tubes and wires coming off of his muscular form. The light of the machines was limited and didn't bring any brightness to the dark room. The fact it was nighttime also added to the feel of dread and guilty that just hung thick in the air.<p>

It had been three days since he had been subjected to punishing damage from an uncontrolled Ultima Rifle spell from his wife. The guilty party, Aqua, had not left his side for three days, forgoing any food. The only real time she had left him was to take care of Isaac and only on the first day. Now, Isaac was in the same room with Aqua and Terra. That way, she could play with her son and care for him while keeping an eye on her lover. But any joy she felt while with Isaac was quickly stomped out when she saw Terra laying there in that damn hospital bed, clinging to life because of what she did to him.

All because she was so weak and _pathetic_.

Aqua looked as she felt. She was sticky and dirty and bags had formed under her eyes. She was exhausted looking, having also not slept in three days. Her skin had lost a shade of color, making her look pale like a ghost. Her stomach grumbled at her loudly to eat, but she ignored its pitiful cries. Her uniform was in shambles, splattered with dry blood, one of her sleeves missing, and several holes dotting the durable cloth. The smell of ash, smoke, and death hung on the bluenette. And in order to free herself from any further guilt, she had ordered Stephen and Magnild to leave the castle and go to Radiant Garden and Disney Castle respectively to help in rebuilding efforts of the worlds.

Sadly, none of silence the castle offered her now brought her peace and nighttime only served to make her life an even greater living hell. Even as she held the hand of Terra, praying he'd wake up and be ok, she knew that _he_ was coming. Every night, right at 2 o' clock a.m., Johann's Lingering Will would come and torment her with his darkness, tearing at her depleted willpower and reducing her to a pathetic state, even more than before. And now, Terra wasn't around to save her from her demons. She had brought this on herself. The monster that tormented her in her dreams and now in body once again was something she tried to deal with alone, but found she couldn't. Now as then, he was just too powerful; but this time, it was her mind that couldn't handle him.

Tired eyes looked at the clock on the way, making out the time. It was 1:47 a.m; a sigh escaped her lips as she got to her feet and walked away from Terra, shaking slightly as she went. She didn't need for her baby or Terra possibly see or hear what was going to happen to her.

Closing her eyes, Aqua thought back to what had happened. The roar of her attack as it drilled into Terra, pushing him away from her, spinning out of control as he was tossed into the mountain range several miles away. Vividly, she could recall the pain that clawed itself onto his face before his eyes rolled into the back of his head; the sear of his flesh as his Guardian vanished in an instant. Aqua froze when she saw that; rage disappeared in a moment before the resulting explosion sent her, Stephen, and the unconscious Magnild flying through the air. Stephen had thankfully saved Magnild from a premature death, catching her as the blonde tumbled from the courtyard.

But Stephen had completely lost his temper when he realized Aqua hadn't gone after Terra, the silently crying Keyblade Master convinced Terra was gone. He was _dead._ She had killed Terra with her irrational thoughts and her unrestrained actions. As she floated in the air, she dully remembered Stephen shaking her wildly as he screamed at her, trying to get her to move; but Aqua just remained shell shocked, not reacting to him as Dark Aqua cried in her mind, broken from her mother's actions. Eventually, Stephen had flown off to the firestorm as the sky turned dark from the ash blackening the skies.

By the time Stephen returned to the burnt, maimed form of Terra—she barely recognized her lover from all the burns on his body—hunks of flaming rocks the size of dimes where falling from the sky. Such was the level of force behind her Ultima Rifle's explosion; Aqua couldn't even bring herself to look at Terra's shattered form as she watched Stephen desperately heal the man, putting all his effort into saving his comrade.

Stephen didn't look at her when he was done, taking Terra inside while Aqua remained outside. It had taken her some time to fully recover, bolting into the castle and to Terra finally. Stephen didn't speak to her even then; he was beyond furious with her, not because she lost control, but because she had frozen when Terra needed her the most! She couldn't blame him for feeling that way; her shame had been enough for him and he didn't pursue the topic very much.

A bonging noise from the clock inside the trauma room of the castle alerted Aqua to a damning fact.

The clock had finally struck 2:00 a.m.

Instantly, darkness began to form and the oppressing feeling of thick rage and anger could be felt floating in the air. Johann's Lingering Will had even more negativity to feed off of now after what had happened.

"I should have done something…Terra. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry," Aqua managed to mutter before she felt the unmistakable feeling of Johann's hellish power forming in the distance, to her left. Looking down the dark hallway, Aqua felt goose bumps forming on her skin as she began to shake. She was afraid. She couldn't see the tyrant down the hallway, but she knew he was close by.

His voice nearly caused Aqua to scream as she took several steps away from the darkness closing on her. She could see his blood red eyes in the darkness, able to make out his muscular, shadowy form as he walked towards her. He hadn't completely formed into a solid shape, but the image was enough to drive Aqua to bolt down the hallway, never taking her eyes off of him. Eventually, Aqua hit the T end of the hallway, hitting the wall.

The air began to get colder as the former Final Harbinger lumbered at her, chuckling as his footsteps echoed through the hallway. Soon, the taunts came as Aqua began to hyperventilate.

"_**Four Keyblade wielders stopping a Master's killing spree…a son betrayed his father and then there were three…"**_

"Why can't you leave us alone? Why can't you just become a memory!?" Aqua managed to scream to the shadowy form of Johann while he took shape and then solidified into a complete being. Why couldn't she be free of at least one monster? She was already enough of monster herself, but seeing him over and over again only seemed to drive her further into the abyss.

"_**Three Keyblade wielders, a pair of boys and a girl, too; One lost his body and then there were two…"**_ Johann replied as her attempts at being threatening to him just failed in their entirety. Aqua knew he wasn't afraid of someone who was shivering like a leaf; he knew she broke down just seeing him. There was nothing she would do; he was extremely confident in his dominance over her.

"Shut up…"

"_**Two Keyblade wielders and they had almost won; but the boy's heart shattered and then there was one…"**_

"Don't talk about Ven! Don't you ever—!" Aqua said, feeling anger starting to bubble up in the back of her throat before Johann was on her in a second, titanium grip going around her throat and crushing it. Aqua began to wheeze and claw at the offending hand as Johann yanked her up off the ground, ignoring the powerful, building breaking kicks from the now panicking Aqua. Each kick impacted his stomach and chest with loud, bone jarring cracks and crunches; however, Johann acted as if nothing was hurting him, despite the fact she was causing a pretty heavy amount of damage with each successive blow. Each kick tore the monster's body open, laying waste to the armored hide that was Johann's skin. But still, Johann didn't falter. The fear so plainly visible in her eyes made Johann smirk before he whispered to her darkly, _**"One Keyblade wielder left all alone; she got stuck in the dark realm and then there were none."**_

After letting those words sink in, Johann smiled as he continued his mental torture. _**"You're so weak. I cannot believe I picked you; you can't even manage your powers properly, you pathetic woman. Tell me, how is Terra? Has he passed away from what you did to him, savage beast?"**_

When Aqua heard those words, she felt her fear instantly die. Shock and hurt replaced it, even while she struggled for breath and her face turned as blue as her hair. But soon, anger devoured her shock and her. Aqua was not going to let him talk down to her that way; even though she knew it was true she had hurt Terra so badly. Even if she lacked the self-control needed to really be a Keyblade Master or the Final Harbinger, she wasn't going to let the worse mass murderer and destroyer in the known universe talk down to her!

Caught off guard by a burst of white light, Johann staggered when Aqua's Keyblade crunched into his face, making him let go of Aqua. The former Final Harbinger clutched at the side of his face, wisps of energy pouring from his wound, jaw hanging from nearly being torn off of the monster's face. Aqua dropped onto all fours and while Stormfall clattered against the ground loudly, gasping for the sweet air to fill her lungs and invigorate her body. She quickly scrambled to her feet before putting Stormfall out in front of her in a defensive gesture as she growled, "Don't you _dare_ talk down to me! You are nothing but the shadow of the monster I beat! That me and my friends proved wrong! I might be a monster, but I'm _nothing_ like you!"

Rubbing the side of his face as it healed effortlessly, Johann laughed darkly, the twisted and distorted voice nearly destroying the willpower that Aqua had managed to cobble together in a vain attempt to face her fears. Aqua gritted her teeth, grinding them against one another as she did her damnest to hold it all together.

"_**Right now, I am here because you're becoming like me. Look at you…I told you, if you looked in the mirror and saw me…"**_

"_I am not you! I am not!"_ Aqua screamed back as she lunged at him with anger, finally starting to fight back on day three. The last two days, Aqua had been reduced to a mess and Johann had beaten her savagely while mocking her weakness. But tonight, Aqua lashed out, desperately. She had to prove she wasn't a weakling. Johann sneered as he sidestepped her obvious thrusting Keyblade strike, moving to the woman's left and swiftly landing a Shadow empowered straight punch to Aqua's exposed side. Aqua let out a shaky gasp as she was smashed into the wall, going through it with a rumbling crash. Landing in Ventus's room, Aqua coughed and gasped painfully as she rolled onto her side. All of her ribs had been broken by Johann's blow. Hunks of wall crumbled off the hole her body had made, the dust slowly settling from the short scuffle.

This was nothing like the titanic fight they had had on the Keyblade Graveyard. There, Johann remembered just how viciously this bluenette had battled him; what they were engaging in was hardly worth calling a battle. It was more akin to a mental game of cat and mouse.

Johann was frowning deeply as he placed his arms over his chest. It was clear this entire situation was pissing him off with each passing second. The dark specter would mostly be sick to his stomach if he could feel such things now of days. Instead, he lashed out with more rage, more mocking, more taunts.

"_**Have you even held a funeral for worthless blonde friend? Or are you in such a state of denial that you haven't even set foot in his room? Have you come to terms with your failure?"**_ Johann mocked the Final Harbinger as he floated into the room, coming to a halt near Aqua's form as she rolled onto all fours, breathing slowly and painfully as bones snapped back into placed and internal wounds faded. She was once again on the verge of crying, breaking apart instead of doggedly fighting back. What was wrong with her? Why couldn't she fight back!? She felt so _weak._

"You don't have a-any right to—" Aqua began before Johann's foot pressed her face into the ground, pinning her down as he growled; _**"You are weak. A weakling with as much power as you have will become a monster because you're not able to control yourself. I should have found someone else to replace me; you disgust me! You are delusional and caught up in denials! You are trash! The woman I elected as my successor would have fought me tooth and nail, but you…you just shake in terror like a new born baby in winter's cold embrace!"**_ For a moment, Aqua hissed with anger and snapped her left arm up, putting a Firaga right into the shadowy monster's face. There was a crash of fire exploding against flesh, Ven's room briefly being lit but by the explosion. Johann recoiled from the blow before laughing madly, even as the smoke from the attack rolled off of him. Even as his ruined face reknitted itself, he laughed at her, making Aqua's resistance finally collapse as she whimpered.

She knew what was coming.

Johann began to beat Aqua's shaking form with kicks to the stomach as a repeated cycle started once again. He had dominated her all over again and now Aqua was being beaten for it. Aqua cried out in pain as internal organs ruptured from viciously destructive kicks; bones cracked loudly; skin tore; blood flowed freely from wounds the healed rapidly. Aqua vomited up copious amounts of ruby fluid and stomach acid as her inner organs convulsed and contracted violently. Finally, after thirty seconds of a thorough beating, the kicks stopped as Johann breathed slowly and deeply, staring at Aqua's gagging, rasping form.

"_**TRASH! AND I WILL ALWAYS BE IN YOUR NIGHTMARES, YOU WORTHLESS WOMAN!"**_ Johann screamed as his form broke apart and disappeared in a wisp of darkness, leaving Aqua alone in Ventus' damaged room. He left her alone in her thoughts and pitiful state.

After a minute passed and Aqua recovered enough to stand up, the bluenette looked in the mirror that once belonged to Ventus. Seeing herself in the mirror for the first time, Aqua saw something she just didn't recognize. She was drenched in fresh blood and Ven's floor was stained with her blood. She was pale, her uniform was in tatters, and her normally shiny hair was dull and greasy. Her eyes were bloodshot and dark bags hung under her eyes. She looked like she had been through a blender and she felt like it as well. She hadn't looked or felt this bad even when she had escaped the Realm of Darkness.

Looking around at Ventus's room, flickers of old memories—good ones with Ventus, like when she had seen him wake up for the first time or when Ventus had finally spoke—pass through her tired mind. All the good times and bad with Ventus, along with this room, was all she had left of her blonde friend. Her blood had stained the room, staining the ground. Aqua knew Johann's Lingering Will was right: she hadn't set for into this room since Ven had died, nor had she fully accepted he was gone. She wanted to close her eyes and wake up from this, finding Ven had survived the battle with Johann. But she knew that wasn't the reality.

Ven was gone and he wasn't coming back.

She finally slumped down as her energy ran dry. She was exhausted from the last three days and tonight's events only served to exhaust her further. She felt her eyes become heavier, like lead weights were attached to them. Even her fear of falling asleep couldn't prevent her exhaustion from fully taking her to the land of nightmares and horrible memories. Aqua's eyes closed as her world went black and exhaustion took her.

* * *

><p>Aqua's eyes snapped open and she jolted to a sitting position with a gasp. The Keyblade Master was quick to realize several things in quick succession: she was at her Station of Awakening, she was fully transformed into her dread Stage II form, and Dark Aqua, also in Stage II form, was standing in front of her. Aqua was quick to inspect her dark half, seeing if something was wrong. The look on Dark Aqua's was neutral; she was tired looking, but not sporting any sort of visual damage. Slowly, Dark Aqua offered Aqua her left hand, which Aqua promptly grabbed. Pulling her mother figure to her feet, Dark Aqua finally let out a soft sigh.<p>

"That was a pretty pitiful performance against that bastard Johann, darlin'," Dark Aqua drawled on to her creator, making Aqua's shoulder's slump down; she did nothing to rebut the dark being's statements, fully embracing and agreeing with them. Her efforts against Johann's Linger Will had been less than stellar. Of course, Dark Aqua knew she hadn't done anything to really bolster Aqua in her time of need.

"It was. I'm so…helpless. I've hurt my friends and lost control; now, that monster is just eroding my will," Aqua admitted as she closed her eyes. She felt the negativity wanting to swallow her up and rendered her weaker than ever before. However, Aqua did her best to rise back up. She knew this path that she was currently was going to lead her into the dark abyss. She couldn't go back to the state that Johann had her at before their last battle.

Moving onto a different topic, Aqua asked, "Why are we transformed? I didn't transform…" She was completely sure she had not mutated into her Stage II before she had passed out. There was no way! She would have woken up from transforming, right?

Right?

Dark Aqua shook her head and enlightened the clearly worried and upset Aqua, whose body had tensed up considerably. Speaking, the dark version of the Final Harbinger responded, "You transformed slowly after you passed out. Don't worry, yet. You didn't transform violently and blow anything up, but we will have to get up soon."

Visibly relaxing from that information, Aqua let out a breath she had been holding in. That was the good news, but she knew that she didn't have time to stay asleep now. If she stayed in Stage II for too long, she'd be stuck in that form forever. She wouldn't risk allowing herself to go insane from being permanently transformed.

"I better wake up then," Aqua began to say before Dark Aqua quickly shook her head, reaching out and grabbing Aqua roughly and holding her in place. Although surprised by what he dark side was doing, Aqua didn't stop her as the darker being said, "No. Not until you talk to him. And see…" Trailing off for a moment, Dark Aqua looked Aqua in the eyes and said, sternly, "That it's time we show Johann's Linger Will the woman we _really_ are."

Of course, it was natural for the bluenette to be a tad apprehensive. That last time she spoke to someone referred to as 'him,' it was Johann. "Who's…him?" Aqua said very slowly, unsure of who she was going to see or hear from. Dark Aqua merely lifted her right human arm and pointed at someone behind Aqua. Aqua, gently freeing herself from her alter ego's grip, turned to see what was to be brought to her attention.

Aqua paled instantly as she froze in place. Her eyes went wide as dinner plates as she tried to process what she was seeing right now. No, not what she was seeing, but _who._ Dark Aqua merely smiled as she looked away, trying not to cry. Aqua, on the other hand, didn't care about looking weak as the tears started to flow.

Unlike with Johann, these where tears of unmatched joy.

Reaching out a bit as she started to shakily walk forward, Aqua tried to speak, wanting to say something, but unable to. Speeding up, Aqua sprinted to the figure that she thought she was never going to see again. Finally, she managed to scream his name, joy making her voice break and go up a few octaves.

"_**VEN!"**_

Ventus was there, right before her, smiling with that big, goofy grin that she was so fond off. Rubbing the back of his head, he was also not afraid of the monstrous form Aqua was currently in. He didn't stop her from tackling him with a ridiculously powerful hug, nearly snapping his spine as she laughed and giggled, taking him off the ground with her hugging and spinning him around and around. She was beyond happy and there wasn't enough words to describe how she was feeling.

Even if she knew that Ventus was still dead, that maybe this was a cruel trick, Aqua was just happy to see her little brother again. If might be for a fleeting moment, so Aqua was going to grab onto this passage of time with all her willpower and enjoy it with all her head.

The blonde barely managed to avoid having his lungs crushed by his friend's insane level of physical strength—scratch that, if he wasn't being brought her by otherworldly power, he'd be sporting a lot of broken bones and maybe on death's door. But he didn't mind her power because she was so happy, crying and blubbering incoherent words. Ventus managed to speak, trying to calm her down so they could talk for what would be a final time.

"H-hey Aqua! Long time, no see, huh?" Ventus managed to say, making Aqua stop spinning, prompting her to blink her tear filled eyes several times, vision blurring due to her tears. Sniffling, Aqua slowly lowered Ventus back down to his feet as she replied, "T-That's al-all you gotta s-say!? You're…s-still carefree, Ven…"

By now, Dark Aqua had floated over, doing her best to avoid becoming a blubbering mess like her mother figure had understandably become. Smiling happily, with a childish grin that stretched impossibly across her face, the dark woman said, softly, "It's really good t' see ya, Ven-Ven. How didja get here?"

"Oh! Right, I should have told ya before Aqua came, huh?" Ventus said with a comical grin as he rubbed the back of his head once again. Aqua, despite her tear stained self, deadpanned as she stared at her little brother, while Dark Aqua gave him a disappointed, expectant look. The darker being crossed her arms, right arm going over white shield arm as she thought, _'Of __**course**__ he shoulda!'_

Seeing the combined looks from Aqua and Dark Aqua, Ventus chuckled nervously as he said, "Uh, right! How I got here, you guys gotta know that!" He trailed off before he gave them the pleading, puppy dog look, begging, "…please don't kill me."

Once again, complete silence. This time, it was because of an awkward moment that only Ventus could cause. Looking at the glass floor, Ventus interlaced his fingers behind his back as he kicked at the ground. Both Aquas where staring at him with uncomfortable looks right now, tails flicking back and forth nervously. _'Right. Already dead…shoulda thought that one through…'_

"Annnnnnyways, I'm here because of the Absolute Being. You know, the being that created Johann and all?" Ventus said with a grin, ignoring the completely shocked expressions that immediately appeared on his audiences faces. He knew what he was here for was important. "He lost Johann to darkness and its polar opposite, but this time, it's taking a lot more proactive stance. With me being the lead man! I guess its power is so great that coming to see you in our realm would pretty much reset the universe to ground zero…"

Dark Aqua was quick to voice her suspicions. "Whoa, ok, stop there. This smells kinda fishy and all…and more importantly, Absolute Being? Why the shit would some no-good God…" Dark Aqua hissed with contempt before Ventus shook his head at her, going, "Hey, be nice. There's a lot even the Final Harbinger doesn't know…"

Aqua, for the most part, was quiet. For some reason, she knew that Ventus was telling the absolute truth. Ven was a poor liar to being with; he was as bad as Sora when it came to lying. And if he was telling the truth about losing Johann to the dark opposite of the Absolute Being, that only meant Aqua really _was_ going astray. And not only was the specter of Johann reminding, now Ventus was here to warn her she was in danger of becoming pawn to some dark being.

She couldn't allow that!

But she needed closure with Ventus. She needed to know she didn't hate her for failing to protect him. That she wanted to tell Ventus she loved him and that she missed him. That, above all else, she was incredibly sorry for messing up so badly she had disturbed his afterlife. Looking to Ven, she whispered, hoarsely, "I'm sorry, Ven."

Blinking, Ven looked at Aqua, but said nothing, leaving the floor open for the Final Harbinger to speak. Dark Aqua was silent now, wanting to see this late touching moment between Ventus's spirit and Aqua. Looking away, shamefully—a feeling she had started to grown all too accustom to—Aqua continued her speech.

"I'm sorry I didn't protect you and that, because I screwed up, Xion's alone now. I should have defended you; I should have stopped Johann earlier! And now, here I am, looking weak and pitiful, being so helpless and pathetic, and disturbing your afterlife. I hurt Terra because I'm a monster at heart, because I allowed myself to lose control. Ven, I-I…I don't wanna end up like Johann! I'm…afraid…a-and, and…!" Unable to speak anymore for fear of crying all over again, Aqua looked at Ventus, a pleading expression on her face. Ventus could tell she was begging for an apology, to know he didn't loathe her very existence.

Ventus smiled brightly at her and said, "Hey! Turn that frown upside down! Remember what Sora says and his friends: there's no frowns allowed in this crew!" Walking over to Aqua, Ventus hugged the shivering form of Aqua tightly as he said, confidently, "It's not your fault Johann killed me. And Xion shouldn't be mad at you. I know you're confused and lost at times. That this isn't easy and we'd be a bunch of idiots to think we can just flip a switch and fix everything…"

Aqua sobbed softly as she clutched onto Ventus, listening to his words as the world around her started to get brighter. She was waking up, but she didn't want to yet. She wanted to stay a bit longer with her little brother. Her soul ached, but she knew she had to do her best to endure. She had to try her hardest, despite how much it would hurt. It would be frustrating at best, agonizing at worst.

"Terra will forgive you; you've forgiven him a hundred times for all the times he hurt you! And I know you'll get back to your older self," Ventus said before pausing and shaking his head. "No, you'll do better. You'll be you, but wiser, you know?" As the Station of Awakening faded away into the blinding light and Ventus's spirit left, he parted with words that made Aqua smile in both her mind and in the physical word.

"I love you, Aqua. You're the best big sister figure anyone could have!"

And then Aqua snapped awake, in Ventus's room. In was still dark in the room and outside as Stage II Aqua looked around slowly. It wasn't long before she realized she was crying, but she felt lighter. She felt more at peace with herself, with the past. She was more…alive!

Standing up, Aqua's tail flicked a bit as she looked at her right hand and then her white Kite Sheild arm. She stared for a long time before she closed her eyes. She felt her old determination flooding back to her. She felt a fire that she longed to feel once again.

Opening her glowing, blue eyes, Aqua came to a final conclusion.

Tomorrow night, Johann _was_ going to become a memory, _once and for all!_

* * *

><p><em><strong>Sorry for the very long time it took to update! Thank you to all of my readers and reviewers! I really want to hear from you, because part of me has been struggling on this story. I am afraid that people find the story to be bad now and that I have ruined KH as a series…<strong>_

_**So, please, I am always willing to hear your constructive opinions!**_


	11. Chapter 10: Asperity

**CHAPTER TEN: ASPERITY**

Aqua had spent the entire day preparing for what was going to be a brutal night. First thing she did was shower, to wash away the smell of blood, death, and smoke. Surprisingly, the bluenette noted while she was enjoying this _awesome _shower, she didn't have any nightmares. Instead, she actually slept well, although she did find herself partly transformed once again. Although frustrating, Aqua didn't let the feeling get to her today. No, today she had business to attend to.

Throughout the day, Aqua played with Isaac, hearing him speak various words like "Yummy!", "Daddy!", and "Momma!" They played with his various toys; the blocks from Sora, the small train from King Mickey, the farm house set from Kairi all were thoroughly used by the excited, happy child and happy mother. Aqua was very proud of Isaac; he had learned to walk, even! Aqua cried with tears of joy when that happened, even if it hurt not having Terra awake to see this. Terra would no doubt be proud of their son; he was such a bright little boy!

Aside from cleaning up the place and playing with Isaac, Aqua tended to the unconscious Terra, making sure he was in clean bedding and praying he would wake up. She told him how sorry she was for what she did do and what she didn't do for him. She had hurt him and didn't even try and see if he was even alive after her attack. She cried for him, but she didn't let the despair consume her. She refused to give Johann anymore ammunition.

The Final Harbinger did a lot of things she hadn't done in the last three days. Aqua ate well (maybe too much, she thought with embarrassment) and did stretches to loosen up her extremely taunt muscles. She took naps when Isaac laid down for naps and got as much rest as she could.

She even planned, although not in extreme detail, what needed to be done to place Ventus to rest. She was aware the Riku had been buried by Sora and Kairi, while King Mickey had buried Galuf at his castle world and she was upset she hadn't gone to them. She had been invited, but she was so out of her mind and unconscious that she never went or apologized for not going. But she would, after tonight, do whatever was needed to make things right.

Those people where all her friends and they had done so much for her. To not think of them at all was shameful.

Aqua even went to survey the damage she caused to the landscape with her out of control Ultima Rifle. The scale of the damage was horrible: the ground was glassed, burnt, and seared into a barren wasteland. All planet life and animals had died in the power of the attack and, at the epicenter, was a great molten lava gash on the planet. Jets of lava erupted from this terrible wound, the planet slowly 'healing' itself as lava hardened into rock. Aqua wanted to terraform the wound and repair the extensive damage, but she knew she couldn't do it now. Not with what she had to do tonight.

She had to focus on the task at hand. Night was rapidly approaching by now and Aqua had to face her demon and end him tonight. If she didn't he would keep plaguing her for all eternity.

She knew that Johann was her issue; as such, that meant that he would appear wherever she was located. So, instead of facing him in the castle, she would fight him far away from this precious home. She would also place the castle under stasis so that her son and husband would be safe. None of them would, most likely, wake up while she was fighting Johann. In addition, she would lock the castle down with her Keyblade to prevent any someone as powerful as Johann from getting inside. Her locked down went beyond simply locking the doors and windows; it was also a defensive barrier against even magical intrusion, like teleporting or phasing. Nothing was getting into the castle; a relief for Aqua and a distraction removed.

It was roughly fifteen minutes from the appointed time; Aqua was many miles away from the castle, standing before a lake surrounded by forest. The moon was being reflected by the lake as Aqua idly stared at the lake and the small, white flowers the dotted the grassy shoreline. This place was Aqua's secret getaway place; a place of beautiful that she was very much worried about losing, but she had her reasons to be here. It was a place of peace; one she was extremely familiar with. The terrain features, all the trees, the rolling hills, the caves—Aqua knew it all like the back of her hand. Here, she could sport an even greater advantage over Johann's Lingering Will.

Aqua smiled a bit as she ran her right hand through her hair, remembering peaceful times of this place. That she used to come here and let talk to the forest to vent her problems as a little girl. Back when Terra was a bit of a bully and poked fun at her, although most of it was in good nature. Aqua thanked him now; he didn't baby her then and that likely contributed to her toughness now, aside from her mother's training.

By now, Aqua felt the darkness swarming behind her, which prompted her to turn and face the forming image of Johann. The dark Lingering Will completely formed before Aqua, the bluenette swallowing a lump of unease in her throat. But she faced him with confidence that she could defeat him once and for all. She had to put this demon to rest.

Johann's Linger Will seemed to notice her radiance and confidence. Arching an eyebrow over those glowing, ruby colored eyes, Johann smirked at Aqua, crossing his arms as he regarded her with a smug expression. Speaking to her, he inquired of the Final Harbinger, _**"My, my. Aren't we looking determined today? It seems someone has lit a fire under your ass."**_

At first, Aqua didn't reply. She wasn't going to grace him with a respond; but then she thought otherwise. Maybe, if she vocalized her determination to face him and not allow him to rule her actions, dreams, and feelings with fear and terror, she'd gain another advantage. So, Aqua looked at him dead in the eyes and spoke, confidently and smoothly.

"I'm done letting you injected my existence with fear and pain. I pity you, Johann. You fought me to make me your successor, but even in death, you are still around." Johann's smug smile disappeared as he listened to Aqua. She could see her words where having some affect; as such, she continued. "Whether it's punishment, because you got brought back for some other reason, or your own devices, I'm telling you here and now…"

With a flash of white light and fall of flower petals, Aqua summoned Stormfall, ready to do battle with Johann for what would hopefully be a final time.

"I will end this nightmare right _here and __**now!"**_

For a moment, the former tyrant seemed to be rather caught off-guard by her declaration. But it wasn't long before he recovered. Johann smiled widely as he enter his own combat stance smoothly, his distorted chuckle still make Aqua's hair stand up on her skin as the temperature lowered considerably.

"_**If you want me gone forever, then you'll have to bleed for it!"**_

And with that, the battle began with a crash. Johann was on Aqua in a second, with the woman using her Keyblade to defend herself with a viciously powerful straight punch; when fist connected against Keyblade, the ground exploded into a shower of dust, rocks, and dirt. Aqua was flung back from the blocked blow—she had forgotten just how brutally powerful he was!—but she recovered before she might have gone into the water, shooting across the lake and leaving a wake as she flew over the water. Hunks of land splashed into the water as the dust was blown away by Johann's takeoff as he chased Aqua down, unleashing a barrage of kicks and punches against his opponent the moment she landed. The bluenette swiftly defended herself with Stormfall, sparks flying as unnatural flesh impacted magical metal while Aqua was deflecting and avoiding attacks; occasionally, she threw in her own strong counterattacks. The ground exploded under the shockwaves of their blows, becoming a steadily deeper crater as they found one another to a standstill.

Small wounds dotted one another's bodies, and both Johann and Aqua looked a little more disheveled, but the ruffled appearance and light wounds would hardly slow either warrior down as they struggled to overpower one another, wounds disappearing instantly as they healed. Johann's hands had wrapped around the shaft of Aqua's Keyblade as he snarled and snapped like a rabid dog; Aqua's lips had curled into a snarl as she worked to hold the monster back. Aqua's legs where shaking as Johann applied more force in his attempts to overpower her, but Aqua held up well, even if she was weaker physically.

To break the deadlock, Aqua's eyes flashed for a moment before she hit Johann dead in the face with a pair of eye beams, blue color beams erupting from those pools of radiant blue. Clearly shocked before the beams exploded against his face, Johann recoiled back sputtering and coughing violent and smoke and wisps of energy rolled of his damaged face. He deftly avoid a follow up downward Keyblade swing, leaping back as Stormfall came down and dug into the soft ground. Johann counterattack with blue flames erupting from his mouth and lighting Aqua's right arm on fire. Aqua squealed in pain as flames ate at flesh and burned off her sleeve, but she used her magic to douse the magical flames with magical empowered water.

"_**Creative, but not enough, woman!"**_ Johann taunted as an Ultima erupted from his extended left palm and rumbling at the recovering form of Aqua, unleashed at point blank range to try and catch Aqua flat footed. The Final Harbinger let out a vicious battle cry, despite the limited time she had to react, screaming as she used Almagest to bounce the Ultima up into the sky, the white, expanding dome sending the Ultima careening into the sky. Aqua then charged through the light of her dying attack and drilled into Johann with a Barrier Surge, making him fly back and through several trees. The ancient plants snapped and shattered unto the impacts, crashing to the ground with bangs and rumbling crunches.

Giving chase so she could try and keep the offensive advantage, Aqua was instead smashed into the ground by Johann when he burst forth from the ground, using a massive tree to repeated bash Aqua into the ground below. Aqua was forced further and further into the ground with each successive, wild blow, the ground shaking from each mighty impact. Aqua's eye budged from pain as Johann viciously beat her, snarling as he said, _**"I'm impressed, but you need to try harder if you WANT ME GONE!"**_

He was silenced when a Ragnarok Shotlock erupted from Stormfall's tip, a massed volley of red beams of energy exploding against Johann's body. He lost his grip on the tree he had been using as a weapon, rolling along the ground as he growled angrily, another blood red volley right on the heels on the previous. Another round of painful explosions peppering the Lingering Will's form with red color blasts, the dark night becoming lit with a red glow. Getting to his feet as smoke curled off of him, he blocked several more beams from Aqua's Shotlock as the bluenette leaped out of the ground. Forearms covered in dark energy send beams into the ground, exploding upon contact with the dirt and creating a screen of smoke. After a moment, Johann blew the smoke away from him with an Aeroga Burst. But a startling, curious fact came to his attention.

Aqua had vanished.

In fact, he no longer could detect her energy. Although a lot of people might be startled by Aqua's sudden disappearance, followed by going into a bout of panic, Johann was experienced enough to control himself and assess the situation. She was clearly hiding, looking to get in a possible sneak attack to end this quickly. Johann frowned a bit and his eyes darted around as he growled out, _**"You can't escape me, woman. I will find you…"**_

Aqua's voice seemed to be all around him as she retorted, "I'm not trying to escape. I'm going to end you." It was plain she was using magic to distort and surround Johann with her voice; rather clever for this mage to do, the seasoned warrior noted.

"_**Is that a fact? Maybe if you had learned a little self-control, you'd not be in this situation, incompetent woman. Look around you; you're facing a product of your inability to manage yourself."**_

"You're right…I was unable to manage myself. But you crumbled too; in fact, I'm here because you wanted me to destroy you, to release you from your bondage. And now, once again, you're here to test me; a failsafe, I guess," Aqua responded as she remained hidden in the forest. The brief sounds of movement made him look in the direction of the noise, but he saw nothing. Johann's Lingering Will had to admit she was very good at keeping herself undetected.

"_**Then enough with the chatter…"**_ Johann replied in an annoyed tone when he, for just a second, detected a monstrous spike in energy. In the moment, he acted on instinct, avoiding a fifteen foot across Ultima coming from behind, the huge orb roaring past the muscular man as he rolled away. The ball flew quite some several miles, plowing through trees effortlessly before exploding with a flash of light and heat, vaporizing everything in the huge explosion radius. However, Johann was forced to avoid several balls of white Holy magic as a follow up, the former Final Harbinger ducking, darting, and rolling to avoid one attack after another. He gritted his teeth from the efforts before a surprise attack in the form of a Time Splicer managed to strike home. Aqua teleported around him and pummeled him with double handed, vicious Keyblade strikes, hitting the monster four times before teleporting and starting a new cycle before the Lingering Will could recover. Johann snarling in pain as he was struck over and over, twenty times through five teleportation cycles before a Hell's Judgement finished off the huge counterattack. The column of blood red and purple energy sent Johann flying high into the sky before he came back down, limp from the system shock of the overwhelming series of attacks. After hitting the ground hard and leaving a deep crater, Johann bounced off and then splashed into the lake, a pillar of water coming up from his impact.

Aqua landed near the lake, panting from her efforts; there was sheen of sweat across her forehead. She had just barely managed to catch him off guard and land a myriad of blows on the bastard, sending him on a one way trip into the lake. Breathing heavily, Aqua waited to see if her opponent would come back up. She just didn't believe that Johann was done already. Not with as strong as he was. The water had settled by now and the crushing silence was making Aqua nervous. Where was he?

A moment later, the water exploded once again, but this time, Aqua under attack as three school bus sized Neutron Stars converged on her position from three different directions; the entire area was bathed with blue, unnatural light. Before Aqua could escape or use a Barrier to block the attacks, Johann's hands burst from the ground and wrapped around her ankles, pulling her down to her hips, making Aqua yelp in surprise before she barely managed to stop one of the Neutron Stars by slapping the ball away with her Keyblade, but the last two struck home with a massive crash, the pained screech of Aqua echoing across the land as Johann's Neutron Stars consumed her trapped form. As the light from the twin explosions faded, Aqua was in the center of a smoke, scorched crater that was twenty miles wide. The damage being done by this fight was intense, but nothing compared to what it could be.

Coughing up smoke and blood from the damage she had taken, Aqua crawled on all fours as she fought to recover. One of her arms had been blown off, but was rapidly regenerating as she stood up. Her uniform was in tatters again, short showing off the sides of her hips. Her stomach and lower back was exposed and pale flesh was now regenerating back to normal.

Johann too was badly hurt, missing half of one of his arms and the hand on the other, but like Aqua, he was rapidly regenerating to normal. He was leaking tendrils of black energy as he body rebuilt itself, coughing heavily as he shook his head a few times. He forced himself to his feet around the same time Aqua did, shaking a bit from the pain he was still in. His body was now sporting only his pants, which where tattered and torn, splattered with black marks. Panting, Johann smiled as he asked her, cruelly, _**"Why don't you transform? Don't you want to fight at full power again?"**_

"Why don't you? You haven't made any efforts…" Aqua replied as she looked at him carefully, inspecting the monster. Why hadn't he? She had thought about doing it, but she knew the extreme danger of that: as it was, both of them could destroy this world, but at that level of power, blowing up a planet would be absolutely effortless. And Aqua didn't want to lose her home and everything because of the fight with Johann. She couldn't handle that and she knew it.

"_**Because this fight is fun, dear Master Aqua. You are so naïve…while you could have transformed to end this fight during your surprise attack, you didn't…"**_ Johann replied with a sinister grin as he tried once again to crack Aqua's willpower. _**"Why didn't you?"**_

"Because I'm not going to risk destroying my home and family from some petty fun!" Aqua replied with an angry growl, making Johann laugh heartily at her. The bastard seemed to be highly amused with her efforts. If Aqua fighting back was having any effect on the Lingering Will's mental state, it didn't show.

Both of them got back into combat stances, with Aqua assess the situation. That last attack had hurt a lot and she was starting to get worn down some; to further complicate things, Aqua no longer had any terrain features to use in surprise attacks. She was going to have to get creative if she wanted to end this any time soon.

Aqua was quick to take the offensive, teleporting behind Johann for her opening attack and lashing out with a fiery thrust, tongues of searing heat licking the air. Johann was quick to duck under the attack, while rotating in place, landing a direct hit with a Disc Blizzaga. The disk of ice crashed into Aqua's stomach, making her double over in pain as her heels dug into the ground while she slid back from the impact. She recovered just in time to block a Holy empowered flying kick with her Barrier spell, Johann impacting it with a jarring crash.

Using Aqua's shield as a spring board, Johann lunged himself away, firing Non-Elemental Blitz barrage the moment Aqua's Barrier spell dropped. Aqua darted and weaved as she avoided the machine gun barrage of attacks, the ground being chewed up as Aqua struggled to get closer to Johann. Eventually, she managed to teleport close enough to throw her Keyblade at him, the weapon ringed with ice before appearing behind Johann and unleashing as Shadow Flare at him, the fifteen foor across glob of raw Shadow magic roaring at the monster. Johann was able to deflect the Shadow Flare back into the sky and into outer space with an impressive backhand, but the Keyblade smashed into his face, dark energy spraying from his mouth as the spinning weapon landed several successive blows.

Trying to maintain the pressure, Aqua activated her command style Ghost Drive, starting a mad teleporting cycle that left behind one afterimage after another. Johann was able to recover from the spinning Keyblade as it returned to its master, catching Aqua when she teleported a tad too close to him. Grabbing her left leg, Johann roughly yanked her down and threw her into the ruined ground below, with Aqua impacting back first with a thunderous bam. Before she could gather her wits, Johann drilled both his feet into Aqua's stomach and pushed her further into the ground, making her squeal in pain as blood erupting like a geyser from her mouth. Johann overstayed his welcome, receiving a Giga Flare at point blank range for his troubles. Johann howled in pain as the blue column of light sear his unnatural body with heat and power, the ground vaporizing around them. The beam carried Johann back into the sky, threatening to take him into outer space.

As Aqua flew out of the hole her attack had created, Johann unleashed a burst of raw power that split the Giga Flare in two halves, each half tumbling wildly on undesired courses before exploding midair, a shockwave beating the tortured land. Smoke curled off of Johann as he stared down at the panting form of Aqua, a twisted grin spread on his loathsome face. Could tell from his shaking he was tired from the brutal fight, but the fight could easily last much, much longer. Aqua mentally cursed, unsure what to do.

"_**Ho, ho, ho, ho. Honestly, I'm pleased to see your desire to defend those you love is back! I like you much better this way, my sweet, delightful Aqua,"**_ Johann cooed with delight, making both Aqua and Dark Aqua retch mentally. But Aqua, in some odd manner, agreed with him. She felt much better doing this than cowering in the corner, afraid of what night would bring. She knew she could do this and she had to finish this!

'_Damn! This asshole's tougher 'n nails and tungsten…_' Dark Aqua mentioned as Johann remained in the air, eyeballing Aqua as she held Stormfall out in front of her in a defensive measure. Aqua could only agree with her dark counterpart, but she had a move that could possibly end this all together, but she had not perfect it nor her Ultima Rifle move. She needed _time_, something this bastard was not going to afford her.

'_I have to make an opening, somehow,'_ Aqua thought as her attention remained focused on Johann and vise versa. However, because of their single minded focus, neither Johann nor Aqua was prepared for what came next.

"_SAY GOODNIGHT!"_

"_**HOLY BAZOOKA!"**_

Aqua's eyes went as wide as dinner plates as Johann's Lingering Will was attacked from his left and right by two attacks: several orbs from Terra's Ultima Cannon and by twin, giant glowing fists composed entirely of Holy magic. The fists where spinning wildly as flew like freight trains at Johann, while the eight orbs of powerful energy raced at the defenseless tyrant. Johann's eyes went wide moments before the Ultima Cannon spheres struck home, followed by the giant Holy fists. The massive explosions made Aqua throw her left hand up to shield her eyes from the light, while her legs spread to steel herself against the resulting shockwave.

"What…!?" Aqua said in shock before Terra, with his Guardian out and Keyblade in hand, landed next to her. She didn't even properly reply to him as he leaned over and kissed her roughly on the lips, her eyes going even wider before she pulled away, sputtering, "What?! How? When!?"

"I woke up because…I felt you fighting!" Terra replied as Stephen dashed overhead at the smoke cloud Johann was within. He was fully transformed and pumping out all his power as he charged at Johann. As the smoke cleared, Johann was taken aback from the six armed Stephen charging him, his fists covered in fire and white light as he attacked Johann with a barrage of fists. Johann struggled to keep up as Stephen viciously pressured him, the enraged Harbinger of Light pushing Johann back as he said, _"I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF YOU!"_

"_**You son of a bitch!"**_ Johann hissed furiously, enraged beyond words that anyone was interfering with his fight with Aqua. And he was even more pissed that Stephen was attacking him with the same level of vigor he had when he said Johann was 'going mad.' Aqua was floored at the level of insane vicious Stephen was fighting with, but Terra's going to one knee made her cry out with worry as she kneeled next to Terra, ready to help him.

"Terra! What are you and Stephen _doing_ here!?" Aqua asked in a terrified tone. How could they both be here!? They were in serious danger right now! Neither of them could fight Johann, so why had they come? They could both die right here and now because of this!

"Aqua…we can't compete with that bastard…" Terra said shakily, still exhausted from his attack and his prolonged life or death struggle while unconscious. He looked at Aqua and grinned, coughing for a moment before he then said, "But it is better we help you than stand by and do nothing again…"

Realizing she could squander this moment, Aqua said, "I know, but you don't have to! I need some time. I'm going to finish him in one blow…." Aqua began to gather energy at her Keyblade, with Terra watching in awe as she gather all the energy she could in her human form. She looked to Terra and saw his questioning look, even while Stephen continued his relentless assault on Johann.

"I don't have much time…but I promise you'll know what to do!" Aqua reassured Terra with a shining grin. Looking back to Stephen and Johann's battle, Terra watched and trusted his wife. He had to right now.

Meanwhile, Stephen landed a trio of right hooks against Johann's face, making his head snap to the left. Dark energy sprayed from his mouth as Stephen screamed at Johann, "Stop tormenting Aqua! You're not well; you're not yourself, goddamn it!" Stephen landed another barrage of straight punches and hooks to Johann's face, spanning his head back and forth, to the left and right with each steel shattering blow. However, Johann was not going to stand by any longer. The tyrant snarled with rage and bulked up considerably, reaching his human form's full power. Stephen was thrown back by the burst of red, demonic aura. A second later, a single, crippling blow to Stephen's stomach knocked the powerful warrior out of the fight, Stephen gagging in pain as Johann put a hole in his stomach and out his back. Several slaps to the face made Stephen progressively weaker as Johann beat him savagely. Eventually, Johann's Linger Will had lifted up his left arm, his hand ringed with powerful energy.

Aqua's eyes widened in horror for a moment before a familiar—but now totally focused—rage took over. Her power spiked considerably as she screamed at Johann, "NO! Don't you dare kill him! That man was your friend!"

"_**My friend…what is a friend? Honestly, I don't even feel for my friend anymore,"**_ Johan responded as he looked at the impaled form of Stephen as he lay limply on his fist, blood coating his hand and forearm. Looking at Aqua, Johann could tell she was at her best in her human form, which was more than enough to equal him. He chuckled a bit as he tossed Stephen away, Terra quickly moving to grab the falling, barely conscious Stephen and retreat. "_**I only feel rage and a desire to see if you are able to stay the course…"**_

"Stay…the course?!" Aqua was about to lose her composure, but instead she didn't. She took in a deep breath as a white aura surrounded her. Then, she felt the pity and knew the misery of that man. She knew she could end up like him. So rather than hate him, fear him, and show him no mercy, she wanted to show him compassion. Closing her eyes, she let out a breath. After a moment Aqua looked him dead in the eyes. You are so ruthless now; the man that you used to be must still be there. I know most would never pity you, but I _do,"_ Aqua replied much to Johann's surprise. She looked at him and smiled a bit. She seemed calm and ready to end this. Her entire body was quivering with mighty power and for the first time, Johann was quite worried about what was coming next. But he was also excited and ready. It was a strange mixture of feelings for the Lingering Will.

"I will defeat you now…and my only wish is that you find peace that you crave. That whatever brought you back end here and now. Johann…this is it," Aqua snapped her Keyblade up, a titanic blade of _all_ the elements forming, with Aqua's Keyblade at the epicenter. The blade was tie-dye in color, a swirling mass of energy in the shape of a claymore. The towering blade was light, but roughly three miles tall and a half mile wide. Johann's Lingering Will was completely floored by the startling, new attack. It was a massive amount of power, but so well controlled, formed effortlessly.

Johann then smiled and knew she had done it. She had and would stay the course. He could sense she was coming back to herself, but wiser. Johann didn't do anything to defend himself—no way he could stop such a immensely overpowering attack in this form—and watched as Aqua brought her arm down, the blade cutting through the air, now wreathed with flames. Aqua screamed out, loudly, _**"The heavens crash down!"**_

And with a blinding light, Johann's Lingering Will found peace in the hellstorm of Aqua's Heavenly Crash attack.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Well, that was it! This chapter is done, but the story isn't yet! The Lingering Will was the first enemy of Part III; the next two chapters will be flash backs to see what Stephen was doing and what Magnild was doing. The battle was intense, I hope. And I hope all my readers enjoyed the chapter! <strong>_

_**Thank you all very much! I'll see you next chapter!**_


	12. Chapter 11: Ghosts of the Past

**CHAPTER ELEVEN: GHOSTS OF THE PAST**

Stephen Black found that the people of Radiant Garden where truly quite impressive. Despite the fact that the former Harbinger of Darkness had pretty much leveled the city into nothing but ash, they came back, none the less, and worked to rebuilt all over again. He was impressed deeply with their resolve. How could they manage to keep their determination was nothing short of a miracle.

But there was something more shocking.

He was _very_ upfront with his role in all of the prior war and that he was currently surviving as the Harbinger of Light with Aqua. He explained to Cloud, Merlin, and company that he was here to help, under Aqua's request, but he would respect their own decision to refuse his help. After all, he couldn't and wouldn't blame them for telling him to leave. That they would be angry with him, enraged even. He had caused a lot of misery…and one of their own ancestors from Radiant Garden long ago, Amy the Scarlet Devil, was a brutal murderer that had caused just as much bloodshed as any villain had.

Instead of rejecting him, they welcomed him. They offered their forgiveness—something that he had balked at and nearly refused—and said they could use the extra help. After all, the city was still burning in some places and only Stephen could dismantle the harsh magic the now dead Darkness Harbinger used.

It had been a good day of helping—time seemed to just fly by, but Stephen knew he could only stay so long. There were other worlds in need of assistance after the Harbinger War. And in addition to that, Stephen had the Final Harbinger on the brain.

As Stephen elected to take a more lengthy method of travel—flying through outer space, surrounded by a dome of golden light—he thought back to what had happened. A frown came to his face as he sighed some. Events played in his mind like an endless lop; akin to a broken record player, skipping back to the beginning of a song versus moving onto a new one.

What had started as a simple sparing match ended as a near death experience for Terra. Aqua's expression, the sheer hopelessness on her face, the numb movements after she had regained her senses was something Stephen couldn't forget. He screamed at her, begged her to move, to do something for Terra. But instead, she had just floated there.

Terra would be dead if Stephen hadn't used all his curing powers to repair the monstrous damage from the Ultima Rifle spell. However, he wasn't out of the woods yet and he knew it. He was healed physically, but there was damage—spiritual—that Stephen couldn't fixed. No one could.

Terra would have to prove strong enough to escape from the talons of death. Stephen feared greatly what might happen if Terra died. Aqua's fragile mental state might shatter completely and then…

Then he and Magnild would have to fight an insane Aqua, in the hopes they could defeat her. Killing her wasn't an option and the only hopes they had was her regaining herself or sealing her in a pocket dimension.

He prayed to the Absolute Being, to any God listening, that things would work out alright. He hadn't prayed in a long time, though. Maybe he was no longer able to speak to any higher beings. They might not even listen, not after all the things he had done wrong. All because he was also too weak mentally and physically; Johann had gone astray because he hadn't been a true friend.

And it seemed Aqua was one the verge as well. He had protested her order to go help the worlds, as did Magnild; but the tense anger in her voice drove them both away. Magnild had looked lost, unsure of what to do. She hadn't been trained nearly enough for any possible horrors she might run into, but she did what was asked of her dutifully. And she certainly wasn't prepared to face her new master.

Neither was Stephen.

"Damn it. What are we gonna do? Aqua's the single best chance this universe has at achieving a lasting peace and already, we're losing that chance…" Stephen said as he flew quicker, anger propelling him at greater speeds. He was getting frustrated about this whole mess. And then there was Johann's Lingering Will, something Stephen had sensed, but couldn't track down. Terra had seen it as well, but, despite their best efforts, they couldn't find him or aid Aqua. It was like he was a ghost only Aqua could face…

'_You_ ArE _**thin**__king in_to this _ToO MuCh. __**MaSteR**_ A_qu_a wil**l no**_**t go**__ astray.__** I wil**__l sAve h__**Er. As wiLL**__ her _friENds and **loVer**.'

Stephen stopped instantly when hearing that all-encompassing voice. A voice he hadn't heard in centuries. A voice that he had been current had abandoned them, the Harbingers long ago. Looking around quickly, looking for a possible vessel for that voice to reach him, Stephen realized he was being connected to it. It was the…

"Absolute Being. You're re-connected to me…?"

'**I wAs**_** never diScoNne**__cted_ from _yoU. You simply _St**oPped LisTening.**'

"I see. How am I hearing you now then? When I begged for your guidance when Johann was going astray? All the times I was desperate and asked for any help, I was left high and dry!" Stephen replied, a bitter tone to his voice as he responded to the powerful, disembodied voice. He had been trying to re-establish his connection to the Absolute Being, hadn't he?

'_**You sTopPEd bEliEving**__ me. Like _YoU StoppEd_ believing _**in YouRseLf. I must ask a task of you. One **_**AqUa AskEd of **_You. Go to Andrelle…A Dar_**kNess**__ is GroWinG ThERE.'_

Stephen's brows crunched up as he process this information from the sudden return of the Absolute Being. Aqua had indeed asked him to go to Andrelle, a world that hadn't been visited in years. Stephen hadn't made this world a priority, as it didn't seem to be in danger when he first passed near it. But apparently, something that he couldn't detect. He couldn't discount the words of an all-knowing, powerful creature like the Absolute Being. And, to be completely frank, when the Absolute Being spoke, it was never wrong about impeding danger. It would never tell someone the full story, as it sought to maintain balance and see that people didn't take it's miracles for granted.

Stephen nodded after a moment, hands clenching into fists tightly. If innocent people were in serious danger, then how could he not do something about it? "Alright. I'll head there now," stated the Harbinger of Light.

'_**GoOd. Go, Stephen. **__Recl_aim who YoU ARE.'

And with that, and a Corridor of Light, Stephen was off.

* * *

><p><em>Crunch.<em> That was the first noise Stephen's feet created as he stepped into waist deep snow.

Stephen's Corridor of Light opened to a completely unexpected scene. As he stepped out, he landed into a blizzard, powerful, icy gusts of wind cutting through his thin clothing. Snow and ice pelted his form, making him quickly surround himself in a far more comfortable aura of fire, a reddish hue guarded Stephen from the fierce winter storm.

"What the hell? It's supposed to be summer here!" Stephen said before he noticed he was on the mountain ridge above the fjord that capital city of Andrelle was nested in. Below him—as he could barely see through the snow laden winds—he could see dozens of trapped sailing ships of various sizes, the ice having snapped a few of them apart or forcefully pushed them out onto the ice. He could also detect a very strong source of magic, which was the source of the reason behind this winter.

But he sensed terror as well, so he doubted instantly this winter was done on purpose. But why was he here? Was something here looking to take advantage of the chaos? Stephen closed his eyes and stained his senses to their best, trying to detect anything, something to guide him.

'_Come on…'_ Stephen thought in worry, thinking there was a good chance he might be racing against the clock right now.

At first, he sensed nothing. The sheer level of icy magic around him was like an effective veil and if someone was sneaking around here, they had plenty of covered, both magically and physically. Stephen growled and stained his senses harder…

Then, something!

Stephen recoiled at the sudden spark of darkness, which, once he detected and focused on, was like a swift stab to the chest, striking one's heart. Unlike Heartless or Xehanort, it was a darkness of something wicked. Something unnatural. It was something Stephen hadn't sensed in years.

This darkness was the darkness of a demon.

"A demon…" Stephen hissed with seething anger, knowing that any demon being here was not good at all. They could preach all they want to, but Stephen knew no demon was really good. He had had no experiences with pure demons or those who had willingly become demons being good.

Having locked onto the demon, Stephen knew he needed to attack and now. He teleported instant, appearing on a snow covered plateau as he heard a devilish voice grumble, _"C'mon, you stupid prince, kill that witch. Once she's dead, your world will be ours…"_ Stephen barely had time to take in the demon's appearance—he was covered in shadow, massive sickle clawed hands coming out from the shadows as it had its back turned to him. It was roughly humanoid, and taller than him by at least a foot, but Stephen launched himself at the monster, not asking any questions. The creature didn't have any warning, but its senses were sharp, as it turned moments before Stephen's light covered fist might have impacted the beast's back, blood red iris with grey sclera widened in shock before it leaped to the side, kicking up snow as it sprung. The demon landed several feet away from Stephen, rumbling as it slide a few feet from the sheer force of its hurried defensive rush.

'_Damn it…'_ Stephen cursed mentally as he had lost his chance to end this fight instantly before it could have begun properly. Stephen then growled, "A demon. What is your kind doing here? Didn't we seal all of you off after the Demonic Incursion?" The demon chuckled darkly as it replied, _"That is correct. But I'm a new demon to the scene, so I wasn't sealed._"

Stephen remained in a combative stance, shifting into a _Niunja Sogi,_ blinking as the beast took a familiar stance like his own. In fact, Stephen had _seen _that stance from his martial arts school before he had become a Harbinger! And that was, without a doubt, a Taekwondo stance!

"_You seem shocked, although you'd not be if you knew my name. Although don't worry! I won't matter because you Harbingers are all __**doomed."**_

"Shut your mouth, demon! I don't know what your plan is, but I will not let you accomplish it!" Stephen snarled with anger before he was forced to avoid a Darkga, leaping away from a column of exploding red and purple energy, hunks of rocks and water flying skyward. He began a game of dodging as the demon was on him quickly—_Fuck, he's fast!_—sickle claws whining through the air as the monster tried to cut him to ribbons with hard, lightning fast claw swings. Kicks where added into the mix as the deadly dance began, but Stephen could see this demon knew his martial arts to a tee. The demon had no intention of giving a Harbinger an opening, landing a powerful, bone jarring hook kick to Stephen's face, making his flesh burn as pure darkness hit him, a garbled scream of pain mixing with the sound of searing skin. Stephen nearly lost his footing under the blow, but recovered quickly. He was struggling to avoid the myriad of attacks and looked desperately for an opening.

However, Stephen was not an inexperienced fighter, having fought demons many times and also many opponents. No one's form was flawless and they would make a mistake if they attacked with such unrestrained rage. Eventually, the demon's claws smashed into the ground and gouged deeply before getting stuck. Stephen was quick to hit the monster with a Holyga at point blank range, the orb of light smashing into the shadowy creature and prompting a piercing scream of pain to erupt of the mass of darkness as it was flung onto its back, squirming and cursing up a storm.

Stephen charged forth lashed out with a flip, trying to land a Holy empowered axe kick and he spun down. However, the creature blocked the massive kick with its forearm, the ground shaking and cracking for several miles from the impact. Chunks of the mountain tumbled down into the fjord below, Stephen leaping off of the forearm he had impacted, launching a Thousand Fists Barrage at the monster, letting out a furious battle cry as he did so. Much to Stephen's shock, the demon countered the attack with a Counter Thousand Fist Barrage, light and darkness covered fists crunching into one another painfully as the ground became undented with a crater a mile across, steaming from vaporized snow.

"Who are you?" Stephen said as he charged at the demonic creature, who laughed darkly as it teleported just out of range, and replied in sing-song voice, _"Welcome home, boys and girls! Time to play with brand new toys. Nightmares lurk inside your minds; now no place is safe to hide. You have nowhere to run; no world shall be safe. In due time you will find; the demons will now rise."_

"_Darkness smothers the light; my revenge is nigh!"_

Suddenly, the winter storm they had been fighting in stopped. Snowflakes hung motionless in the air. Stephen looked around in confusion before looking behind him and seeing something that made his blood run cold. Below them, in the distance, on the ice of the fjord, a man with a sword stalked up to a beautiful, sobbing woman: a blonde with a slender, curvy figure, a brilliant blue dress with snowflakes on it. Stephen could see the darkness, infectious in nature, but impossible to see to a normal human, on the blade. The demon's plan was obvious: the blade would strike the woman and, instead of killing her, turn her into a demon!

Stephen, forgetting about the demon, was quick to fly as fast as he could at the impending scene of doom. However, he wasn't going to reach them in time as the demon laughed in a rumbling nature that sent chills up his spine.

The man raised his weapon to the defenseless woman.

Stephen screamed in fury as he tried to stop this madness.

The demon laughed.

And then, a woman's voice screamed, "ELSA!"

Someone, whom Stephen hadn't noticed before, a woman with snow white hair and seemingly freezing, got between the blonde named Elsa and the swinging man, before she froze, becoming blue ice. The sword struck the hand outstretched to catch the blade, shattering the weapon instantly as flinging the attacker away from a grunt, the man's head hitting the hard ice and knocking him out. The darkness dispelled from the weapon as bits of it shattered about and Stephen stopped midair at the sight.

Elsa, blinking a few times, looked up and her eyes widened with horror. Her sister—her precious little sister—was reduced to nothing more than a block of frozen ice. And it was her fault. _Her_ fault. She was quick to come to her feet, crying out pitifully, "Anna!"

Stephen watched the woman round around the now frozen woman as another man in heavy winter clothing, a living small snowman, and a reindeer watched on, horrified and shocked expressions on their faces. The man in particular seemed utterly heartbroken, reaching out some to the woman named Anna. Kristoff was completely devastated by the loss of someone he had come to care about so much. His reindeer was doing no better.

Elsa breathed her sister's name again, desperate for a reaction of any type. She reached out slowly, almost painfully, like she'd break all that remained of her sister. "No…no, please, no…" Elsa whispered weakly, fat tears rolling down her face before she broken down and cried loudly, hugging the cold body of her sister. She heaved as she sobbed, completely devastated at the apparent death of her sister.

The snowman, named Olaf, said softly, "Anna…?" But no response came from the woman.

Stephen clenched his fists angrily. While a possible demonic incursion had been adverted, someone had died to prevent it. He had been too slow. Looking back, Stephen could see the demon in shadows floating behind him, looking smug none the less. He was about to lunge at the monster and break its face…until it's expression changed to that of total shock. Confused, Stephen looked back at the scene below and his eyes widened as he smiled, joy coming to him.

The woman was thawing! Somehow…she was coming back! Stephen cackled and watched the scene, hearing something about "an act of true love will thaw a frozen heart!" from the now ecstatic snowman. The blonde woman also noticed this comment, coming to a conclusion that love was the key to her powers and began to reverse the winter. As summer came back and ships went back into the water, Stephen turned to the stunned demon and said, "See that? That's something you demons can never understand. Love will defeat the self-destructive feelings like hatred and anger."

The demon growled furiously, ignoring the fact his pawn was punched into the now warm, sparkling water below them. It then said, _"Love is trash when your brother abandons you and murders you! If I can't have this world…then that woman shall die!"_

The demon teleported, making Stephen's eyes widen before he turned and rushed down, blocking the claws of the monster before it skewed Elsa. Everyone was shocked at the sudden appearance of Stephen's muscular form and the snapping, enraged form of the shadowy demon. "Stay…away…from her! You're not taking away their happy ending, demon!" Stephen hissed as he fought to hold the demon back from Elsa, glancing back as he said, "Stay back! I won't let him hurt you!"

Elsa was floored—first her sister saving her and now a total stranger coming to protect her? She stepped back from the man and the shadow thing he was struggling to hold back, the monster's clawed feet digging deeply into the wooden deck of the recently refloated ship.

"_No happy endings will ever find you! You and that stupid whore Aqua will suffer as I have suffered!"_

Stephen growled darkly. He had heard enough of this thing's voice and its savage taunts. Once it had called Aqua a whore, he had had enough. The taunts, the attacking innocent people…it was too much! He suddenly pulsed with white power and flung the thing back into the air before he said, "Go…back TO _**HELL!"**_

Before the demon, whose words had shaken him deeply could make a response, Stephen's fist dug deeply into the searing shadows, smashing into a face under the rolling darkness. Even as Stephen's flame and holy covered hand burned in pain, he roared in rage as he felt the face crunch unnaturally under the sheer force of his blow. And then, with a final bit of effort, Stephen punched that bastard away, sending him flying into a mountain with so much force that the side of it exploded and then collapsed onto the smug demon. The rumbling noise of sliding, falling rock filled the air as Stephen landed on the deck of the ship panting some.

Olaf, Anna, Kristoff all began to ask questions, completely confused as what had happened. Stephen cringed at all the voices, all the questions, making him want to punch himself. He was still lost in some thought; that demon seemed too familiar and it had mentioned his brother. Had that thing known his brother? Or worse still, was it a persona of his brother? So many questions of his own…

"Everyone! Be quiet!" Elsa sudden commanded, seeing the man was clearly being overwhelmed with all the questions, which promptly caused everyone to clamp their mouths shut for now. Else looked at the man, whose back was to them right now, and then approached him slowly. He had saved them against that thing, whatever it was.

Somehow, even as Elsa approached the flaming man carefully, Stephen knew that this was far from over. Stephen turned and looked at Elsa and smiled sheepishly, going, "Uh…hello?"

"…hi," Elsa replied just as dumbly. She flushed slightly and then said, "Thank you for saving us from that monster." Stephen couldn't help but to beam right away and say, "No problem, my lady."

How would Stephen have known he was going to meet such a lovely looking woman today?


	13. Chapter 12: Hardened

**CHAPTER TWELVE: HARDENED**

"Ok, where the hell am I?"

That was the first thing Magnild had to ask herself. Sadly, she had not reached the world of Neverland, as during her trip there, this mysterious void had opened up before her. It looked like a black hole with silver hues to it, with purple colored lightening surrounding it. And worse still, it had opened up so suddenly that the Maiden of Steel had had no time to avoid it. The void had swallowed her and her ad hoc spaceship hole. Her ship had come apart in the void and she had passed out as a result, the ship apart of her being in a way. After all, she had created it, not trusting the Corridor of Darkness nor having Keyblade Armor.

Magnild did _not_ expect to find herself, when she came to, in a place quite like this.

She had been face down on a hard floor of some sort, which prompted her to stand up in a hurry, looking around with critical eyes. She assumed she was in some sort of house passed on the things she could see in the dark hall. The walls boast a red checkered pattern, while the ceiling was a popcorn style, white and dull. The walls were decorated with various pictures, which gave her a dark vibe—especially single the faces of the adults in the pictures where torn out by what looked like claws..

Looking down the hall, Magnild could see an old, beautiful grandfather clock, made of rich dark wood and golden colored hands, with red glowing numbers in Roman numerals. The clock was about to strike midnight, it seems. There was a small table on Madnild's left, a lamp and another photo sitting on top of it. The photo was oozing some foul smelling black fluid, making Magnild cough some.

"Sweet Jesus! That smells like Satan's asshole…" the Nothingness Harbinger groaned as she covered her nose. Looking to her right, she spotted a light blue colored door slightly open—emanating from this door was the sounds of a child crying softly. Magnild, hearing this, moved to the door slowly. When she reached it, she peered around the door, looking inside the room.

Magnild's eyes widened at the sight presented before her.

This room, clearly a bedroom, was a relatively large room. The walls of the room consisted of the blue design, and across from Magnild, there was another light blue door; to her left, a closet could be seen, with multiple shirts hanging from the hangers above. The walls of the room where _very_ decorated, unlike the hallway, consisting of several stars and paintings. At her door, there was a light switch. There was a single ceiling fan with a popcorn backdrop, the fan turning slightly. On the floor, there was a toy caterpillar, a blue phone, and a purple robot can be seen on the floor of the room.

There are two dressers visible in the room. A few shirts can also be seen hanging out of one of them. A purple fan, a lava lamp, and an alarm clock was on the bigger of the two drawers, while the smaller one had a single lamp sitting on top of it.

But it was who was on the bed that made Magnild's eyes widen in shock and horror.

It was a small, young boy, who was barely seven years old. He had dark colored hair and his eyes where shut tight, tears streaming down his face. He wore a simple green t-shirt, tan shorts, and white socks. A simple appearance could not startle Magnild—it was his face. His head…his entire frontal lobe, his entire front part of his skull was _gone_. Magnild could see brain matter pulsing from the bloody wound that should have killed such a small child.

"Holy shit!" Magnild said before she covered her mouth. The child promptly looked up at the blonde, his empty eyes sockets going wide in fear, before letting out a bloodcurdling scream before retreating off the bed and under it in a single shift motion. Magnild groaned at her own stupidity; there went making a good entrance on a positive note. The kid seemed positively terrified of her.

Sighing heavily, Magnild moved to the bed, floor creaking as she walked. The child was shaking and whimpering under the bed as Magnild got onto all fours slowly and peered under the bed. There the boy was, quivering in fear as fat tears rolled down his face. The singled glowing eye of Magnild dulled as her expression softened. Whatever was wrong with this child—likely having something to do with that bite on his head—the Nothingness Harbinger could only feel pity and sadness for the child. No one needed to be afraid of everything they saw, which this child seemed to be.

"Hey…" Magnild's voice called out to the child, softly in order to try and regain ground on the likely uphill battle she was going to have with getting this child's trust any. "I didn't mean t' startle you. And I'm not gonna hurt you, I promise! You don't need to come out from under the bed, but…can I ask you a few questions? Nod your head if I can…" There was a short pause. "Shake it you want me to leave, ok?"

The shaking child seemed to regard her words carefully. Although she didn't know his name, William was afraid of the monsters that lurked in this place and had assumed that Magnild, with her single glowing eye, had been one of the demons here. The monsters in the dark that wanted to hurt him more. And tonight was the night the one that hurt him the most was coming, was _here._

He shook his head up and down vigorously, latching onto the only glimmer of possible hope in this place—Magnild herself, although she didn't know it yet. The woman smiled some at his response, going, "That's good. My name is Magnild. What's your's little one?"

"…_Wi…lli…am."_

Magnild blinked at the raspy, hoarse, broken-from-screaming voice before her expression grew to become even more pity bearing. She felt for this poor child. She felt the loneliness and pain, something she felt so much when she was a child and her power developed and grew. "You must be lonely in this horrible place. Why are you here?"

"_I'm…a…scardy c-cat. This is…my place…cuz I'm…a…baby. And cry…I'm in Hell…"_ William whimpered back to Magnild as he drew his knees up to his chin and hiccupped a bit.

"That's…" Magnild said, her eyes wide with horror that a child could even think, let alone _say,_ something like that! She then replied with increasing determination, "No, people don't go to Hell because they're scared. I don't know why you're here…but if I can, I'll help you get out of this place. Who put you here?"

There was only a terrified moan as the clock in the hall began to ring and bang, the clock striking twelve a.m.

"_The one who hurt me the most."_

Magnild's skin crawled when she heard this low, wick cackle that seemed to echo everywhere. There was cruelty and evil in that voice, making Magnild come to her feet in an instant, ready to do battle with whatever was in this house. Looking back at the bed, Magnild said, "William…I will protect you. I promise."

William's empty sockets widened in shock at this, at what Magnild stated so strongly and without a doubt to the boy. Magnild was going to protect William from _him?_

"_You can't save him."_

Magnild's skin began to crawl at that demonic sounding voice. She was quick to hear mechanical sounding footsteps rushing down the hallway to her right, making her quickly bolt for the door. The door was closed, but the moment she reached the door, it slowly opened a tiny bit. It wasn't enough to reveal the entire hall or whatever was in the hallway, but Magnild stopped and took a defensive stance at the single hideous eye staring back at her.

The single gray and metallic eye with bloody red iris narrowed when it saw Magnild before widening, carrying an expression of hatred and anger that sear itself into Magnild's memory.

"_Peek-a-boo…I_**…**_**see…you."**_

With that, the thing on the other side of the door laughed loudly, before the eye disappeared. Magnild heard the sound of rushing footsteps, moving to the other side, to the left hallway. This time, however, Madnild moved as fast as could, becoming a blur of motion and bursting into the hallway to confront the monster outside, whatever it was. She pivoted to fact the mechanical sounding footsteps, coupled with a low strung crawl, like a savage beast ready to strike.

Of course, she had been expecting a monster, and by Kingdom Hearts, this thing didn't fail to deliver.

This thing was a mottled golden color with various splotches of brown, many tears and holes spotting its furry form. Around its neck was a pink and purple bow-tie, a small top hat with a black stripe upon its. The thing's head was large, having puffy cheeks, exposed gums dark in color, and a wide mouth full of long, sharp, needle-like teeth, and in two clearly separate pieces. The beast's muzzle was squarish, with several long wires poking out from each of its eyes, making creepy eyelashes. Most of the fur on his ears is missing.

Moving down as Magnild inspected the leering monster before her, she noticed its hands. Those claws, by Kingdom Hearts, where huge! They were silver-colored and razor-sharp, sickle-like in nature and five in total. The thing's kneecaps, as well as its shoulder pads, are missing, revealing a metal-looking endoskeleton under the body. The mechanical demonic monster had a round stomach with dark brown coloring and a large slit at the lower part armed with a set of razor-sharp fangs. Those fangs, along with the ones in its mouth, had bloody red hues at the roots.

"Whatever the Hell you are, you're not getting to that kid! What in the fuck did he do to you, you fucked up teddy bear!?" Magnild hissed as she prepared for battle. Having noticed the metal under the beast's fur, Magnild felt confident enough she could finish this off quickly. But she wanted to know _why._

The animatronic bear seemed to sneer at her in a hateful manner as it took a few steps at her, before going, _"Aw, come now, let ol' Fredbear at the kid! He most likely wants a hug…least he cry some more. Heh, heh, heh, heh, heh…"_

"Piss off!" Magnild snarled back before she snapped her right hand out, calling on her power over metal in order to rip the metal skeleton out of this creepy thing's body. She expected metal to fly out of the monster, on her command, and then it drop to the floor, lifeless and broken. That's what should happen.

Instead, nothing happened. The bear cocked its head before letting out a husky, low laugh, clutching at its belly as he laughed. Magnild was completely confused at how her power of metal wasn't completely ruining this thing's body. She took at defensive stance as the bear said, _"What's wrong, Nothingness Harbinger? Can't even protect Willie Boy in there from me? It's not like your powers can tear me apart. I am more than mere metal!"_

"How do you know who I am?" Magnild asked as her eyes narrowed, feeling something terribly wrong here now. She had a feeling that that hole and this place was a big smelly trap and she had walked headlong into it. The monster, Fredbear as it called itself (although Nightmare Fredbear was the correct term), lowered itself before it let out a deafening roar and lunged at the Harbinger, who quickly formed iron over her forearms. Silver claws aimed at her chest smashed into her heavily armored forearms, but Magnild nearly buckled under the sheer amount of power behind Nightmare Fredbear's attack. Instead, she roared and pushed the off-balance bear back with a mighty shove. As he staggered back with a growl, Magnild was quickly using her powers to create an iron spear, the metal object forming in a blink of an eye.

Cocking her left arm back, Magnild flung the sharp spear at the huge creature before her…but instead, the golden bear disappeared with a flash, teleporting away. Her spear pierced the wall behind where Nightmare Fredbear had been, getting stuck in it now.

Magnild heard breathing behind her as Nightmare Fredbear said, _"This game has only just begun."_

Magnild rolled forward as claws swung down hard and fast, digging into a wooden floor instead of flesh and splintering it loudly. The sounds of combat drew a scream of terror from William inside is room, Magnild hearing this. She growl as Nightmare Fredbear seemed to laugh as he lunged at her, starting a furious display of claw swings and bites that Magnild had to work overtime to avoid. She gritted her teeth as claws barely missed her stomach, tearing fabric instead, the fluttering cloth floating away as Nightmare Fredbear drove her back now.

Magnild's metal defense wasn't infallible, nor was she all metal. She had never faced such a monstrous opponent who was stronger than Xehanort had been, who was out for her blood for unknown reasons. Magnild coouldn't seem to land any blows on the surprisingly fast monster, who ducked and darted away from her counter punches and kicks.

A powerful fist collided with Magnild's face, making her gag as her head snapped to the right hard, spit flying as she was tossed back down the hall. The Nothingness Harbinger crashed into the wall her spear had impaled with a bang, going through it now and landing two rooms away. Nightmare Fredbear chuckled darkly as he watched the dust settle from the blow he had landed on the Harbinger, bits of wood, plaster, and metal falling, while wires sparked, creating a shower of yellow.

"_Really, how pathetic. Well, some knight in shining armor you where! When I'm done with Willie Boy, I'll be coming for you next, Mag-pie!"_ Nightmare Fredbear taunted as he waved a hand dismissively at the hole Magnild's body had made before he turned away from it, starting to walk towards the doors that would lead into William's room. _"Ready or not, here I come, Wil-"_

_Crunch!_

Fredbear's head snapped to the right hard as an iron covered fist pounded into his head hard, making his vision blur from the blow as it took him off his feet and made him slid along the wooden floor, hide tear a trench into the wooden floor. Fredbear came to a stop quickly, getting to his feet as he growled at the shaking form of Magnild.

"You know, Fred-Fuck...I hate a lot of things. I'm not a nice Fräulein," Magnild said as she glared hatefully at the golden colored monster before her as he rubbed his dented face some, before it popped back into place with a thump. He narrowed his eyes at her as he replied, _"Are you suppose to be scaring me?"_

Magnild's response made Fredbear's bloody red eyes widen in surprise, shock even, as she screamed, "I could give a fuck less if a monster like you is afraid of me! You don't need to be afraid to get a beat down...and I will beat you, you child tormenting freak of nature! Children are innocent...and you DO _NOT __**FUCK WITH THAT!"**_

Now it was Magnild's turn to be shocked, when Fredbear laughed and replied,_ "Heh, heh, heh...Willie-Boy made me to hunt him, you narrow-minded little fool. I am his greatest friend...so how befitting for me to be the one who kills him over and over again?"_

Now, Magnild was positively shaking with rage. Even if this was true, the William somehow wanted this thing to hurt him, it made Magnild's blood boil with furious rage. Rage she was going to take out on this Nightmare Fredbear's face!

"You don't deserve to exist, let alone be a called a friend, if you enjoy this shit!" Magnild snarled as she lunged at Fredbear, fist draw back with iron creeping up her arm to her shoulder. Fredbear caught the attack with his massive hand, wrapping his digits over Magnild's before his fist came forward, but Magnild hit back, two fists smashing into one another so hard the floor shattered below them and also blow out the walls around them. William screamed in terror once again as Magnild and Nightmare Fredbear traded blows in a furious display, both rage driven opponents now unable to get an edge over one another.

As they fought, William watched now with horror, his hiding place having been turned over by the shock wave of the attacks impacting. He watched as Fredbear, the bear he loved so much, fought his only hope. William _did_ love Fredbear and what the bear said had been true, but William didn't want to hurt anymore. And he didn't want Fredbear to be a monster anymore. But he was so scared...how could he escape this place?

As both fighters started to land blows—small dents on Nightmare Fredbear's body and deep cuts on Magnild—it was clear that Magnild was losing. The entire area was being ruined by the power of blows landed against one another, with Nightmare Fredbear hitting her at point blank range with bright white blasts of energy from it's impossibly wide mouth, in addition to the physical blows and iron made projectiles. The landscape was a wasteland of destruction...

But Magnild was losing.

Fredbear was stronger and sturdier, while Magnild was not nearly as well trained like Aqua, Terra, or Stephen. So even though she could regenerate, she was getting worn down by the sheer fierceness of the battle she was in. But with all of that, Magnild never stopped fighting back. She doggedly fought to save William, the boy watching as she got slower bit by bit.

"_He's...too strong...please, just run..."_ William said with fear as Nightmare Fredbear laughed darkly, backhanding the woman across the face and sending her rolling along the ground next to William. She was panting heavily as she coughed up blood, but still rose to her feet anyways. Willaim stared in horror as Nightmare Fredbear narrowed his eyes and grumbled, _"Stubborn little Mag-pie, will you please just die already? You will soon feel every bit of life leaving you, oozing from open wounds. The PAIN. THE SUFFERING. __**IT'S ALL THAT'S LEFT FOR YOU NOW. HEH, HEH, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA!"**_ William screamed at the booming, all-consuming voice of Nightmare Fredbear as he spread his arms, tossing his head back as he laughed insanely.

But that's when Magnild stood before the little boy protectively, much to William's shock. She looked at the huge golden bear and clenched her hands into fists as she said, "I'm not running...I don't care if this monster from the dark is strong...I promised to save you, William! I am afraid...like you, but I will not let this bastard hurt you anymore!"

"You don't have to be afraid...because so long as I am here, you will be safe...I will free you..." Magnild said as she gathered her determination, looking for anything that would give her strength. Anything at all. She looked at William and said, "He's not your friend...and you don't have to stay here because of your attachment to him!"

"_He is...was...my friend. Fredbear was...my guide..."_

Nightmare Fredbear chuckled as he said, _"That Fredbear died years ago...all that's left is me. It's me...the one of your nightmares. I will hunt you down forever, Willie-Boy..."_

Magnild was about to reply to this, opening her mouth when Willaim surprised both Nightmare Fredbear and Magnild. He stood up, stopped his foot loudly, and screamed, _"NO! No, you won't! I am tired of you hurting me, Fredbear! Go away! I don't want to play anymore!"_

Nightmare Fredbear snarled hatefully at the boy, roaring in rage at this sudden development. Willaim was getting spine...from Magnild! She was boosting his confidence. Or maybe...she was merely awaking what none had before. Magnild looked at the kid with wonder before smiling at him and then looking at Nightmare Fredbear. "Hear that? Kid just outgrew you, Freddie-Boy."

Nightmare Fredbear watched as William grew brighter and brighter, starting to float up and away. He was going to heaven. A small, tiny part of Nightmare Fredbear was happy that William was going...but most of him was livid this Harbinger had managed to take William. He wanted to crush her bones and reduce her into paste. However, Nightmare Fredbear had run out of time. He had hoped he could break this Harbinger, making one less issue down the road...

But his ally was calling. It was time for them—the demons—to hide for now.

Nightmare Fredbear snickered darkly as the world around them bad to fade away. As William went to Heaven, he spoke to Magnild for what would not be the last time.

"_Shadows blind those who live in the light...it surrounds them. __**Consumes**__ them. But shadows are an ally to those who live in the dark. It's a tool, a shroud. You will never be safe from us who live in the dark; you will never be safe from me...your friends will die all around you. Your worlds will rot into nothing. I will hunt you down...and I will kill you."_

Those words chilled Magnild to the bone. She watched as the world got brighter and brighter, pieces of it breaking away and floating up to the Heaven beyond. Soon, Magnild was blinded...

And with that, the world around them faded away...


	14. Chapter 13: Oil

**CHAPTER THIRTEEN: OIL**

Panting heavily, Aqua knew it was over. It was finally, completely done. Looking down at the smoldering hole that her recent attack had created, she could sense that Johann was gone. He hadn't even moved to defend himself in the last moment, something he could have done. But he hadn't…

Instead, he had gone down like he did in the past: with a smile that beamed of relief. Maybe he was happy he was put to rest, but Aqua felt like, deep down in her heart, it was so much deeper than that.

Floating down as she felt her muscles spasm in pain, Aqua gasped as she shakily drifted down, landing on her butt next to Terra and the barely recovered Stephen. Stephen was lying on the now muddy ground back first, staring into the sky. A distance rumble of thunder could be heard as a thunderstorm brewed in the distance, dark clouds even harder to see in the night. Rather than the cheers of celebration that one might have expected after a great victory, there was a comfortable silence as the three merely savored the defeat of Johann's Lingering Will.

After a bit—minutes, seconds, who honestly knew or cared—Aqua looked at Terra, opening her mouth to speak to him. She had so many mixed feelings, so many things she wanted to ask and say all at once. How had he woke up and broke through her spell? She wanted to beg for forgiveness, she wanted to cry in joy, she still felt shame for what she had done to him. She had _hurt_ her precious Terra. He had nearly died because of her…

Instead, Terra's hand went over her mouth, covering it and effectively telling her without words to not speak. He smiled at her brightly and said, "I forgive you. I really do. Aqua, things happen for a reason, even the horrible stuff. Don't let what you did to me by accident weight you down anymore, ok?"

Pulling Terra's hand away slowly with both of her own hands, Aqua looked downcast as her smooth hands rubbed Terra's single one slowly. She mulled over what her husband said, knowing what he was saying was true. She craved his forgiveness and he had given it to her. She needed to simply let go…

Evenly, she looked up, tears dotting her eyes, but she was smiling as she said, "I love you too, you big goof."

Terra chuckled a bit, knowing she had things she wanted to ask—he could see it in the twinkle of her eyes—but he wanted to simply be here with her and not think about anything. He leaned over and kissed her in the forehead softly, going, "I love you, Aqua."

"How did you get out of the status I put the castle under?" Aqua asked out of curiosity as she nuzzled her slender frame into Terra's warm muscular body, striking cerulean eyes glancing to brilliant brunette ones. Terra smirked a tad smugly, knowing she was bound to ask that, before he replied, "I felt the fight and I had to come. It took some effort, but I broke free. I had to be free of your safety net in order to help you. By then, Stephen had returned from whatever the Hell he was doing and we went together."

"…that's really—I don't know what to say," Aqua whispered after she processed what Terra had stated to her. His sheer willpower had overpowered her magic, something she was very shocked by. But she felt her heart flutter, making her entire body warm up as many feelings flooded her mind and heart. All of these feelings were positive and felt so good—it was a nice change of pace after all of the negativity.

As Aqua leaned against him comfortably, Terra was thinking about the future. Aqua was already starting to look and feel better, but he knew they needed to work on giving her back the control over herself she craved. He never wanted to see her be afraid of herself again—she was much too sweet, caring, and loving for that sort of self-inflicting pain. He would never stop until she was able to live without the free of losing control.

By then, the noise of movement grabbed the attention of both Aqua and Terra.

Stephen sat up slowly, cringing a bit as he did so. Terra glanced at the de-transformed Harbinger, concerned for him, but otherwise did nothing to stop Stephen sitting up. The man ran his hand through his black hair slowly, letting out a sigh as he did so. Looking over at Aqua, he sported a downcast look as he said, "Sorry I couldn't have been more useful…I rushed right back here because I learned something while I was out. I barely had any energy left." He paused briefly as he collected his thoughts. He really felt so useless again his former friend and mentor even, and once again, Aqua had to carry the weight.

"Don't worry, Stephen. It was my battle alone…he wanted me, not you, so don't beat yourself up," Aqua offered the distressed Light Harbinger comfortably, not wanting him to downgrade himself so much.

Eye brows crunching in confusion, Terra spoke up, inquiring with a tad more force than he intended, "Out? Where were you anyways? I can safely say I'm clueless as what has been going on…"

Aqua was quiet for now, letting Stephen doing the talking. She was curious why Stephen had rushed back here and then recklessly engaged in combat already worn out. She had a feeling that it had to be something extraordinarily important for Stephen to be behaving so strangely.

"I wish I could be bringing good news, but I don't have any. Harbingers have been tasked with protecting balance, as you know…and Aqua, I'm sure you're aware of the Absolute Being, right?" Stephen inquired of the bluenette, who nodded in response, but otherwise didn't speak up. Terra, however, groaned some at the name, as well at his cluelessness on the matter. What the Hell was an Absolute Being? He had never heard of this thing before, making him question if Stephen hadn't had some screws jarred lose by Johann's Lingering Will. However, if Aqua had nodded in agreement, then this guy had to exist, somehow.

"Someone needs to explain to me who the Absolute Being is later…" Terra mumbled in mild annoyance, making Aqua giggle at him. She was amused at his confusion, which only made him frown harder. However, Stephen was quick to say, "We have a big problem, something much worse than Heartless." He clenched his hands tightly into fists as he had a flash back to the last Demonic Incursion. He saw Johann fighting back thousands of screaming, mutated monsters. He saw himself battling the very same monsters…all of the Harbingers of old, fighting, not to ruin Aqua's life, but to protect innocent lives before everything went wrong. Before that demon lord that Johann defeated convinced the humans to murder his lover, which darkened his heart ultimately.

"The demons are back."

The tone in Stephen's voice was all it took to make Aqua's cheerful expression evaporate, while Terra stopped frowning and looked at the dead serious, even hateful expression on Stephen's face. And the sheer amount of darkly lace anger and rage in Stephen's voice made Aqua realize she wasn't playing a game. He was conveying to them, properly, that the universe as a whole was in serious danger.

"Demons?" Aqua questioned softly, a memory of something coming to her. In her time in the Realm of Darkness, she had battled something that wasn't a Heartless, but was of pure evil and darkness. It was a memory and battle she choose to forget often. Had she battled something then that was demonic…?

Terra looked at Aqua as she seemed to become disturbed and worried in but a few seconds. Terra also had this feeling of dread when he heard the word _demon_. The brunette's vision returned to Stephen's scowling form as he asked, "Explain." It came more as an order than anything else and he doubted that Stephen would have any problems explaining.

"Aqua asked me to tour the worlds while you were out," Stephen began as Aqua jolted out of her own memories, Stephen's voice grabbing her attention completely as Terra also listened to the ancient Harbinger of Light. "Eventually, the Absolute Being contacted me and directed me to Arendelle. There, I found a demon—a strong one—trying to turn the world in a demon planet by manipulating humans and trying to corrupt the new Queen, Elsa, there. If that was merely a small cog in a much deeper plan, I do not know, but I do know that demons are the enemies of the Harbingers. They are not merely the enemies of us, they are the scum of the universe. They are everyone's enemy."

What Stephen said next was something one might not expect from the normally fair tempered Stephen. He growled hatefully, looking at Aqua with a burning fury in his eyes as he stated forcefully, "We can't rest until we remove all demons from this universe. They have to be _completely_ and _utterly _destroyed. I don't care why or how they are back; they must die! We can't even leave a speck of them in the universe!"

"Stephen…" Aqua said, at a loss on what to say. She had never seem him speak so hatefully and it bothered her. But at the same time, it was clear that demons were something he loathed and he loathed them completely and absolutely. She looked to Terra, trying gauge what he was feeling.

Terra's brows had furrowed some and his eyes narrowed as he mulled over how Stephen was behaving and acting. He could see the hatred in the Harbinger's eyes, feeling the nearly irrational fury dripping off of his words. Had the hatred of demons been created because of the actions of the monsters of the past or because of Johann branding it into his fellow Harbingers? Maybe it was a combination of both things. Terra finally spoke, going, "Why do you hate the demons so much?"

Stephen looked right at Terra, a glint of something—pain, maybe?—as he let out a slow breath. Answering, he explained, "Me, personally…the lust of power by the warriors of my home world, born originally out of the desire to save others, drew demons to them and twisted them. The result was Johann came to my world…it wasn't destroyed completely, like others, but I sacrificed a lot to save the remaining good." Indeed, Stephen had been forced to take many lives while Johann also leveled entire cities turning into demonic cesspools. That day was the stuff of nightmares; Stephen could never forgive the demons for how they took something so _pure_ and turned it into something so _dark._

"Many lives have been ruined and changed irreversibly by the poison that are demons. Johann was bad in his last years, but even the most lesser demon is more evil than Johann ever was," Stephen stated simply, like it was the most obvious thing in the universe. "Demons are the counter to us Harbingers, created by the counter to the Absolute Being, Absolute Void. We were meant to be peacekeepers…they are meant to be warmongers."

_**CRACK!**_

Stomp of frustration interrupted Stephen, the ground shaking as Aqua embedded her foot into the ground and cracked it for many feet. She looked quite upset as she breathed slowly and raggedly. Looking to Stephen and then to Terra, her sudden anger quickly deflated as she slumped her shoulders, disappointment thick in her voice as she spoke.

"I'm—it's just...we should be at peace right now. After all the things we've all been through, this is just unfair. Wasn't Johann enough?"

"Well, I guess it's not. No reason to cry over it, bluebird," a familiar voice said to the trio, making the three look over. Magnild was the source of the voice as she walked towards the group, looking rather scruffy from the tears and dirt on her outfit. She hadn't changed at all, lacking much clothing to begin with. The woman came to a stop before Aqua, looking at her while chiding her. "C'mon, aren't you the strongest lady around? If I can handle a pissed off teddy bear of a monster then surely you can handle whatever the universe tosses your way."

Aqua couldn't repress a smile as she replied, wirily, "Don't you have some chains to clean?"

"…no?"

"Well, you do now."

Magnild groaned as she rubbed the back of her head. "I guess I earned that one," she responded with a chuckle, making both Terra and Stephen laugh at her misfortune. Aqua smiled as she looked between her friends and lover, the feelings of good vibes came back to her. It wasn't going to be easy, between the new oily clouds of war on the horizon and her need to train to get back her control, but she knew if there was a will, there was a way.

And any way was made easier with friends.

"C'mon. Let's go back the castle. Magnild, you can tell me what happened to you—I'd imagine it's an interesting story," Aqua offered as she held her hand out to Magnild to give her an assist. The German woman merely smirked while taking Aqua's offer hand, squeezing it firmly, and replied, "Oh, it's not that interesting. The best part was saving an innocent child's soul. And in the end, isn't that all that really matters?"

Stephen nodded at this as he and Terra floated into the air, ready to go back to the castle as well. "I'd agree with that thousand fold!"

Smiling, the group departed, knowing that it was wiser to savor the moments of good rather than focus of the bad news.

* * *

><p>The day had been remarkability dull after the epic battle earlier in the night. Everyone cleaned up, while Aqua created a very full, hearty breakfast for the gang. Stuffed omelets, waffles, bacon, biscuits, crescents, fruit bowls—everything she could think of, Aqua used her culinary talent to create. At breakfast, Aqua had learned from Magnild about Nightmare Fredbear and the little boy he had been tormenting for who knows how long. She was very proud of Magnild for doing whatever it took to save William's soul of the endless cycle of death and rebirth in the nightmare realm. However, Nightmare Fredbear had escaped leaving behind a chilling threat to the Nothingness Harbinger.<p>

Somewhere, unknown to Aqua and her friends, the monsters of the dark where moving, working to undermine the peace of the universe and the Harbingers didn't like it one bit.

Aqua knew, however, they had to rest after Johann's Lingering Will and the battles recently fought with the nameless demon and Nightmare Fredbear. Without any solid leads, none of them could chase the demons. However, in action was just a foolish, so Aqua did the next best thing: she and her friends would go to worlds that seemed to be potential hot spots for demon trouble or worlds that could be possible hiding places. If Aqua and her friends couldn't pin down the demons or their plans, they'd do their best to make allies and fight evil.

That meant getting everyone on-board. That meant a lot of visiting between all the training and world hopping. Aqua was cringing mentally at seeing people she was afraid hated her guts.

But for now, with the new night coming, everyone had turned in for the night. Aqua had passed out rather quickly, right alongside the warm, cuddly form of Terra. She felt safe in his strong arms, which wrapped around her and brought her close. And knowing Johann had been put to rest helped as well.

But tonight, there would be no nightmares.

Tonight, there would be no dreams.

Instead, there was something more…

Aqua was in a flowery field, with bright, warm sunlight washing over her form. Flowers of all types—tulips, roses, lavender, buttercups, and everything in-between—filled the field, created a variable nose utopia. There was an undeniable sense of peace in the air as a gentle breeze swept through the flowers and lush green grass. In this field was Aqua, a snow white sun dress rippling over her curvy frame, a baffled expression on her face.

Where was she? It was like she was in a dream world all over again. Looking around, Aqua blinked a few times before she felt a gentle presence behind her. Turning, with no real urgency, Aqua's eyes bugged out of her head at who she saw standing before her. Opening her mouth to speak, Aqua formed a single world she just wasn't expecting to say.

"M-mom?"

Her mom was here? How? She could see in her in the same flowing sundress like herself, loose over her mother's curvy form. The woman was smiling, gently, at Aqua. There was something about her than seemed off, however. Not in a bad way, but it was certainly there. Instead of shaking her head yes to Aqua's tentative question, she spoke in a voice that was so all powerful and all encompassing, but didn't generate any fear. _**"Child, I **_**am **_merely _tAking a foRm for whIch bRiNgS _**you cOMfort. I am**_ the one you call the AbSOlutE BeInG."

Blinking a few times, Aqua took in those words slowly and carefully. So, this was the Absolute Being? That voice was so comforting, as a mixture of her mother's voice with some much more divine. It was a difficult for Aqua to describe, but she felt to fear being around this powerful being. "I…see. What brings you here, then?" Aqua said, making herself bow respectfully. However, the Absolute Being laughed musically at Aqua, making her look up, further confused. Why was the Absolute Being laughing so…carelessly?

"_**SUcH **__a respectful young WoMan, _**but ThEre is NO **need _to BoW. Aqua, my child, __**WE ar**_**e EQuALs."**

Aqua blushed a bit, embarrassment painting her cheeks a rosy red color. Before she could speak anymore, the Absolute Being smiled softly, silencing her with a single finger. After this, the creature, frowned ever so slightly and said, _**"I am SorRY that **_my CREAtion, JohaNN, hurt you so MuCH. I _**wANTed to **__prevent him from causing YOU pain, but my counterPART _BloCKED me from HeLPIng him and YOu."

"Helping us both?" Aqua questioned carefully, not sure what the being meant. Why would the Absolute Being want to save Johann?

Nodding gently, the Absolute Being cloaked in Mizu's form replied, _**"My CREation, Johann, **_was never meant to BE so DarK. However, DarKNEss of Pa_**in corrupted HIS HeaRT…and I **_**was NO longer able **to speak to Him…HE LOSt his way, for which I was AT FAULT. _**Absolute might be MY TiTle…but that is given to me by many others. I simply am. I am Not Absolute; if I was, you would have NEVER **_been forced to become Johann's successor."

If Aqua could have picked up her jaw, she would have had to travel to the basement to find it. Had the Absolute Being just apologized to her? For the mistakes it made or deemed it had made? Aqua blinked rapidly and shook her head, going, "No, it's…it's ok. You don't need to apologize to me. I just wish Johann hadn't become so twisted. I just wish I knew _why."_

The Absolute Being nodded and said, _**"JOHaNN**_ lost his hUmAn lover dUring the DeMONiC **Incursion. **_**Between all the filth he saw made by deMONs and huMAns and the long YEARS of service, **__that was WHaT made HIM snap._ JohANN…was not pure evil. And I would ask, if you can, to forgive him and his madness. And if you cannot, I understand this completely. What he did to you and your friends was horrible and wicked; forgiveness is not easily given in this situation."

As they spoke to one another, the Absolute Being's voice became more and more clear. It was easier to understand it and what it was saying to her. There was no garbled noise, no static of sorts. The voice was clear as any other voice, but it still was all powerful and echoed effortlessly over the land. Aqua had heard what the being asked, making her look away and close her eyes. Forgive Johann?

"…I can't yet. My heart aches from what he did to everyone. So many people are still hurting and always will for what he did."

With a soft nod, the Absolute Being replied, "I understand, Aqua. But by saying you can't yet, you didn't close the door for forgiveness. For that, I thank you."

Aqua couldn't prevent a tiny smile come to her face. This Absolute Being was observant, but also so kind.

Continuing to speak, the Absolute Being gestured a bit with its right arm, saying, "And I must thank you for not trying to leave your position. Although it isn't easy, just being who are saved the universe." Seeing the confusion and shock on Aqua's face, the Absolute Being said, "Without Harbingers, Light, Darkness, and Nothings, always as many other forces, cannot be regulated. Without this regulation, chaos would ensue. And my counterpart, Void, would draw on this. Its power would then vastly exceed mine and I would be defeated."

"Wait, you're fighting another God?"

"Even now, as we speak, we battle endlessly. All evil spawns from Void. All things considered good come from me…once we were one. Then we split and became two."

Aqua was once again searching for her jaw. "You're fighting right _now!?"_

A chuckle of amusement because a playful jab came from the Absolute Being in its response. "My dear child, I believe I stated just such. You are not deaf, are you?"

Aqua flushed once again as fidgeted some, clasping her hands together in front of her body. "N-No. I'm just very shocked is all."

"Such a feeling in understandable. Now…I know you have been through much. I do not normally interfere with the universe, but I can and will gain you a wish of sorts. I can do one thing you ask. My power is, in a sense of the word, at your use. What can I do, child, to help ease the pain of the universe? Even if only a small piece is helped, the ripples of one small good thing cane become a title wave of greater good."

There is was. The carrot on the preverbal stick, so to say. The Absolute Being knew that it couldn't grant everyone prayer, every wish…but when it could use its power outside of the endless war, it was blessed.

Aqua, without even thinking about it, know what the Absolute Being could do. She looked at the being dead in its eyes full of knowledge and wisdom and said, "Please…I wish for you to…"

* * *

><p><em><strong>HA! Cliffhanger!<strong>_

Well, everyone, I am back, working on this story a tad more regularly. The next few chapters will have some time skips in them, but I will note those chapters as they come. I wonder what Aqua wished for?

Also, I will be posting an AU Valentine's Day story! I hope you all enjoy it when it comes!


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